Wine of the week: Delaire Graff Merlot 2014

This rich and spicy red is probably the best South African merlot I've ever tasted, writes Neil Pendock

Bernardo Cabral is a Portuguese young-gun winemaker practising his dark arts in the forests of the Tejo appellation east of Lisbon, a region famous for large farms and low production costs.

So on a busman's holiday to the winelands last week, we packed him off to the chenin chavs of Rawsonville and the Slanghoek valley. Followed by Franschhoek and Banghoek.

When he returned, all he could talk about was a nine-year-old Fernão Pires made by Morne Vrey and lurking in a barrel at Delaire Graff.

Until he tasted the Delaire Graff 2014 merlot which was his best red of the trip.

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Delaire means "from the sky" which in this case is a misnomer. It should rather be associated with Japan as this wine is the closest South African reds get to pure umami. Umami is that elusive fifth flavour discovered by a Japanese professor a century ago and means savoury plus. Think large grilled brown mushrooms with Korean barbeque sauce - which makes the perfect food accompaniment to this rich and spicy red from a single vineyard on the Helderberg.

The vines are the oldest on the farm, planted in 1999 and only 5,000 bottles were made. So raid your closest independent liquor store - this stuff is way too scarce to feature on supermarket shelves. It's probably the best South African merlot I've ever tasted. Period.

The price is reasonable when you consider it saves you the R11,000 round- trip airfare to Bordeaux which is the only other place you'll get such marvellous merlot without any hints of mint which make so many local expressions taste like mouthwash.

Price per bottle: R200

Where to buy?delaire.co.za

Rating: *****

***** Madame Butterfly

**** Issey Miyake

*** Yoko Ono

** Yohji Yamamoto

* Daimaou Kosaka

•  This article was originally published in The Times.