Provenance

The Coats Family Cellar is arguably the most prestigious fine wine collection ever offered in South Africa. It contains an expansive 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 refrigerated container. 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

'Utterly fabulous. It was served blind but was pretty obvious what it was. Deep orangey caramel colour. Creamy texture and extremely heady on the nose. Barley sugar and wonderful vitality and balance. Surely this would convince the most committed hater of sweet wines. 1975 is such a great Sauternes vintage.' - Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, 20/20 (Dec 2015)

'Deep gold in color, the 1975 d'Yquem gives up initial notes of cashew butter, manuka honey, dried apricots, musk perfume and fallen leaves over a core of spice cake, applesauce, fungi and lemongrass. The palate is laden with bright, vibrant stone fruit and preserved citrus fruit flavors, laced with honey-nut accents and finishing provocatively earthy. While intense and hedonically satisfying, this beguiling vintage has so many nuances emerging as it unfurls, it stops you in your tracks. Make sure it is the very last wine of the evening, because once you taste this, everything else will pale into insignificance. Although this wine is currently well within its ideal drinking window, there's certainly no rush to drink well-preserved bottles.' - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate, 99/100 (Aug 2019)