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

‘It may have been overshadowed for years, but it is just great right now! Seductive texture, like sea-polished driftwood. Cedar and dark fruit and graphite and iron and touch of wild thyme. Very elegant. Shadowy but a wine with subtle strength. Early-morning campfire. Smoke and pepper. Perhaps the least rich of the five Grange vintages, but the one wine where port-sweet fruit stepped back to allow so much more complexity of herb and spice to come to the fore. I thought that this was quite special. And so lovely for drinking now.’ - Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com, 18.5/20 (Nov 2021)

'Deep crimson. Meaty, leafy, red cherry, redcurrant, graphite, tobacco aromas with herb garden, aniseed and iodine/seaweed/soy notes. Ample redcurrant, red cherry and mocha flavours with soy, demi-glace and nutty notes, fine lacy al dente and sinewy tannins and underlying coconut and vanilla oak nuances. Finishes sinewy firm dry with meaty soy notes.' - Penfolds - The Rewards of Patience, 3* (Sept 2020)

‘Deep, dark ruby-red. Heady, superripe aromas of black plum, blackcurrant, blueberry and treacle, richly endowed with dark chocolate, vanilla and creamy oak; hints of mint and eucalyptus in the background. Silky-smooth, rich and creamy; remarkably approachable given its relative youth. Dripping with ripe black fruits and wrapped in firm but velvety tannins. A very good but not great Grange made without any suggestion of the portiness or overextraction so often shown by many of its imitators.’ - Jeremy Oliver, Vinous, 93/100 (Jul 2002)