54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Shiraz, 17% Merlot

This South African wine has a real 'funk' about it when first opened - A nose of earth and leathery fruit, and a touch of barnyard come to mind. (For best results, decant for 1 hour)
A stunning dark wine with a black cherry - cranberry base with a touch of youthful purple. Medium clarity.
Once given time to breathe, the wine becomes soft and rich with a thick mouthfeel. It's thick with chewy fruit and an almost sweet black cherry tone that makes up the core of the structure. Touches of spice, current, smokey oak, and fine tannins emerge on the finish, which is of moderate length.
This is a massive, thick wine with a structure and cascade of flavours that are quite differnt from a California wine, making this distinct and special at the same time.
This is a good one, enough here to age well. My rating: 91pts.

"Every bottle holds the perfect wine until it's opened!"

I agree that the Rust ev Vrede estate wine 1998 is great. I would give it 92+ points. I think it will reach its top around 2006. It will be the wine for the main course on my wedding. Their Cab and Shiraz is also very good.

I will be the third here to agree on this. A great 90-92 pt. wine. This region of South Africa is quite impressive....

-DRAB

So much wine.....so little time!!!

Many SA wines have that funky smell once opening. My wife hates it, and she refuses to drink any SA wines as a result.

Personally, I like a handful of SA wineries, one being the one listed in this thread.

I agree that "Rust en Vrede" is/are very good wines which merit the 90-93 points.

Doc

If they are that good then they have really moved up over the past few years. We had two different Rust en Vrede wines in South Africa in 1999, a pinotage and a cab I think, and they were both thin and weak and not worth whatever meagre coin I paid there for them. I think they were 96s or 97s.

But I have read good things about these wines elsewhere recently (the latest Wine and Spirits magazine, I think), so maybe it's just me...