Provenance

The Coats Family Cellar is arguably the most prestigious fine wine collection ever offered in South Africa. It contains a deep collection of the worlds finest, most sought-after wines, spanning over 150 years. Collected over many decades, the cellar was imported from Ireland to South Africa via reefer. Each bottle within the Coats Family Cellar was authenticated by Michael Egan in August 2022 and given an ID number for tracking.

Michael Egan is a world-expert in fine and rare wines with more than thirty five years of experience. He was the principal expert for the plaintiff in the two major wine counterfeiting trials in Koch v. Eric Greenberg and United States v. Rudy Kurniawan, both of which occurred in 2013.

Along with Michael Egan, the Strauss & Co Fine Wine team have tasted extensively through the cellar and are confident of the wine storage and hence quality. The entire collection is currently stored at Wine Cellar.

Critics Ratings

'Delivers wonderful dark chocolate, with raspberry and currant undertones. Full-bodied, featuring soft, silky tannins and a long finish. Very tight still. Needs time. Very layered and holding back.Best after 2012.' - Wine Spectator, 94/100 (May 2010)

'Mid crimson/garnet. Such perfume and Lafite aroma! No obvious sweetness but real lift and delicacy. Racy Lafite character on the palate; this dances. Real class with some velvety texture and a bone-dry finish. Very clean and pure. It reverberates on the end - thanks to the Indian summer, we were told. Apparently this was chosen for the 150th celebration tasting because it has really started to open out since 2016.' - Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, 18/20 (May 2018)

'Bright medium ruby. Floral, minerally aromas of blueberry and violet. Quite dense and intensely flavored; thick but shapely and delineated, thanks to a firm spine of acidity. Consistent from start to finish: no hole in the middle here! Finishes with dusty, even tannins (polyphenols are near the level of the '96, but the tannins are ripe) and excellent length. A superb performance for the year.' - Stephen Tanzer, Vinous, 93/100 (May 2000)

'The 1999 Lafite Rothschild sports an engraved "1999" on the bottle along with an eclipse to mark that significant historical event of August, 1999. It is a quintessential offering from Lafite Rothschild. This prodigious wine is both elegant and intensely flavored, and almost diaphanous in its layers that unfold with no heaviness. An opaque ruby/purple color is accompanied by a complex bouquet of lead pencil, graphite, cedar, creme de cassis, toast, and vanilla. It is medium-bodied, with extravagant layers of richness yet little weight, and a finish that is all sweetness, ripeness, and harmony. This extraordinary Lafite increasingly appears to be a modern day clone of the majestic 1953. A mere one-third of the crop made it into the grand vin! Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030.' - Robert Parker Jr, Wine Advocate, 95/100 (Apr 2002)