En primeur: Stellenbosch 2025

Helderberg Winery started life as a cooperative but is today a Boekenhoutskloof property, acquired in 2009; and now months away from the completion of an extensive and impressive upgrade of the facility. The first harvest received at the cellar was in 1906, making it the very first cooperative in South Africa to process grapes and the oldest continuously producing former cooperative in the Cape. Since the first vintage of Boekenhoutskloof’s Stellenbosch cabernet sauvignon in 2014, Technical Director Marc Kent has always had the intention of launching a cabernet to sit at the apex of his cabernets, not dissimilar to the relationship between Porseleinberg syrah and Boekenhoutskloof syrah, and when he suggested that The Wine Society might partner with him, exclusively, on this project, we didn’t hesitate. On a misty Cape winter’s morning in the middle of July 2026, our South Africa buyer Victoria Mason MW joined Marc and his head winemaker, Gottfried Mocke, at the Boekenhoutskloof cellar to taste through approximately 70 barrel samples of Helderberg cabernet from the outstanding 2025 vintage. Victoria then selected and blended the inaugural Helderberg Winery cabernet sauvignon. There are so many elements of this partnership which resonate with us and make it something incredibly special: the fact the Helderberg Winery was once a cooperative, like The Society; the fact our en primeur offering marks the 120th anniversary of the cellar’s first vintage and also Marc’s thirtieth anniversary of winemaking; the fact that in 112 markets globally, Boekenhoutskloof chose us to collaborate with, as the exclusive launch partner! We are therefore delighted to bring you this world-first, 9-barrel blend. With a beautiful perfume of blackcurrant, red plum and mulberry fruit and spicy tobacco leaf, this is expressive and fragrant. There is a sweet plumpness to the black cherry fruit, which is accentuated by ageing in 100% new French oak, but the hedonistic character is tempered by a vivid freshness and a distinctive saline streak and stony minerality. This salty savouriness provides gorgeous balance and is derived from the barrels of cabernet from the most coastal sites of the Greater Helderberg area, which formed an important part of the final blend. The vintage’s signature ripe, silky-fine tannin profile carries the palate to a very long, dry, resonant finish. The balance and elegance here is just superb and we are so excited to present this exclusive wine to members. Drink from 2032 to 2050. 14%

The 2025 is the fifth vintage under cellarmaster Wim Truter of this hugely popular Estate Red from South African royalty, Meerlust – a long-time member favourite which represents some of the best-value drinking not just in the Western Cape, but in the world – particularly so with this special en primeur price! The Estate Red is made up of the components that don’t quite make it into Rubicon, as well as from some of the younger vineyards on the property and in 2025 it comprises 69% cabernet sauvignon and 31% cabernet franc. Intense with cassis, damson and liquorice aromatics, this has Meerlust’s characteristic brightness and precision on the palate and a lovely supple texture. Fresh and vibrant acidity combines with beautifully sweet, concentrated fruit in this charming rendition of the Estate Red with well-integrated spice and toast from 50% new French oak. Drink from 2028 to 2040. 14%

Meerlust Rubicon really needs no introduction. It is South Africa’s oldest Bordeaux blend still in production, debuting with the 1980 vintage, and a true Cape classic. And we have a feeling that the 2025 vintage is going to go down as one of the great Rubicons of our time. You can hear cellarmaster Wim Truter himself talk about the 2025 vintage in the recording of the online event we held live from Stellenbosch last month, but the topline summary is that it was a ‘textbook’ season for the Meerlust estate in the Eerste River Valley – ‘so moderate, no stress’ – without heat spikes, which enabled him to pick when he wanted to pick (two weeks later than usual, in fact). Rubicon is one of a handful of wines in this en primeur selection which is blended early so that it ages in barrel as a complete blend and has plenty of time to integrate and harmonise with the oak. Wim feels this is important for the overall integrity and balance and indeed tasting this wine at just under one year old it was already showing an incredible coherence and togetherness on both the nose and the palate. An incredibly accomplished blend of 47% cabernet sauvignon, 38% merlot, 9% cabernet franc and 6% petit verdot, which is all about elegance and length on the palate, with remarkable density and depth of black-plum and blackcurrant fruit. The tannins are supremely elegant and fine grained; they glide across the palate without friction and there is a perfect combination of fruit ripeness from the long hang time and bright freshness on the finish. All winemakers have their own parallels when they talk about this vintage, but for Wim ‘it is almost a combination of 2021 and 2024: the tension of 2021 and the fruit of 2024.’ Drink from 2032 to 2050. 14.5%

The 2025 Taaibosch Crescendo is the seventh vintage of this revived Stellenbosch icon (the 2023 was not bottled) and one to get your hands on while it still flies somewhat under the radar. Formerly known as Cordoba Crescendo, this cabernet franc-driven Bordeaux blend became a cult wine in the Cape in the late 1990s. However, the property was sold and, while grape growing continued, wine production ceased in the early noughties. Bought by the Oddo family in 2017 and re-christened Taaibosch, this stunning estate on the slopes of the mighty Helderberg mountain has been reimagined and regenerated under the charismatic Schalk Joubert, former head winemaker and CEO at Rupert & Rothschild. There is always a vitality to Crescendo, a brightness and precision of fruit expression, irrespective of the vintage, and the 2025 rendition is true to form. With fragrant perfume of hedgerow fruit, black cherry and blackcurrant leaf, this is so fine with a tight-knit, fine-grained tannin texture, silky and seamless already. Elegant and vibrantly fresh, there is a nervousness to the fruit which shows a red as well as black cherry character on the palate with a graphite-mineral intensity. One of the most elegant wines of this selection, it is medium-bodied and the finish is dry, chalky, and brilliantly persistent. A blend of majority cabernet franc, with merlot and cabernet sauvignon in support, the three components mature separately for fourteen months and are then blended before another fourteen months in a combination of foudre and concrete, after which the wine is brought together for a final three months in concrete before bottling. Drink from 2030 to 2045. 13.5%

Rustenberg Peter Barlow is a regal cabernet sauvignon from a single vineyard on this centuries-old Stellenbosch property. The first vintage ever made was the 1996 and recently South Africa buyer Victoria drank the 1999 which was in an incredible place at 27 years’ old! Murray Barlow, the third generation of the family to farm the estate, finalised the 2025 blend the day before our buyer tasted the wine for the second time this year, in July 2026. Deep and dense, with an intense core of cassis, black-cherry and brambly fruit, this is poised and sophisticated with dark liquorice spice, dried tobacco-leaf and graphite complexity. It has the fine, supple-textured tannins of the vintage, and a bright, refreshing seam of acidity, balancing the full-bodied concentration. Aged in approximately 65% new French oak for what will likely be a total of twenty months, this is already showing the seamless integration of oak and fruit that is a characteristic of the 2025s. While powerful and rich, it is a graceful example of this venerable cabernet block, with a long, mineral finish. Since the 2024 vintage, after years of trials, Peter Barlow is now bottled under Diam30. Drink from 2032 to 2050. 14.5%

Lady May, Glenelly’s flagship red named in honour of the estate’s founder May de Lencquesaing, is always an elegant expression of the Simonsberg, but the 2025 vintage ascends to another level of finesse. While 2025 was cellarmaster Dirk van Zyl’s third harvest at the property, it is the first vintage of his Lady May we are offering to members (his debut 2023 will not be released until 2028), and it’s a profound triumph. Opening with a fine perfume of cool cassis, tobacco leaf and cedar, there is intense and pure blackcurrant and plum fruit on the palate with a dry, graphite minerality, and long, beautifully composed tannins. The structure is significant but there is a weightlessness to how the tannins present themselves – the combined effect of the vintage itself and the gentle refinements Dirk is bringing into the cellar, namely fermenting at cooler temperatures and pulling back from extraction. A truly beautiful wine; pure classicism and gravitas reign here. The blend of 67% cabernet sauvignon, 18% cabernet franc, and 15% merlot was finalised in early April 2026 – after the individual varieties had matured for a year in French oak barrels (30% new). The second year of the maturation is now underway in barrel (56%) and foudre (44%); the introduction of the foudre to the ageing regime designed to retain the youth and purity of the fruit. Bottling will take place in April/May 2027. Drink from 2032 to 2050. 14%