The Roundhouse Rumbullion and Belfield Merlot

November 3, 2009

On Sunday - tired and hungover I took my even more hungover brothers for lunch at The Roundhouse Rumbullion.

On a beautiful summer’s day in Cape Town there are few better settings for lunch - just check the vid out below:

We hadn’t booked and were lucky to be seated two tables away from Raymond Ackerman - who fresh into retirement obviously agrees that it’s an amazing place to while away the afternoon and feed hungry stomachs.

We had just ordered an assortment of breads, cheeses, hams and pate’s when I spotted my good friend The Wine Thief skipping across the grass terrace with a carafe of wine in his hands.

Oh dear we thought - how in our hungover states can we possibly drink wine now. Not one to refuse a glass of wine - we all charged our glasses and began sniffing in earnest, almost daring each other to take a sip.

Just one sip and I knew where the wine came from - it was undoubtedly a cool climate Belfield wine - but what varietal.

Pure Merlot is the answer and it’s one of the damn finest Merlot’s I’ve tasted in ages. A wine so good that it cured our hangovers and made the pompous adjectives flow from our mouths:

soft, silky, cool, herbaceous, lingering, smooth, tea-like, subtly spicy

In short it’s a wine that I believe will rank up there as one of the best Merlot’s in South Africa - a cool climate wine that even Miles from Sideways would appreciate.

Anyway that’s my prediction - the wine hasn’t even been released yet (but is about to be) - and we will see what the award fundies say. Although my past predictions for Belfield wines have been pretty spot on.

If you would like to pre-order a case of the Belfield Merlot - get in touch with Mike Kreft of Belfield at this address: