An Epicurean tale: Twenty years in the making

At the turn of the millennium four friends took a trip to France. Starting in Champagne, they worked their way down through Burgundy, along to Bordeaux and finished the trip in Cognac.

This was for the group — prominent South African businessmen Mutle Mogase, Moss Ngoasheng, Ron Gault, and politician Mbhazima Shilowa — the beginning of what would become Epicurean Wines.

The trip was a catalyst that opened their eyes to the wines that were being made around the world. Just having come through apartheid, South Africa’s wine industry was still rather insular, with wine made for a market that favoured chunky, heavy and overly extracted wines — nothing like the elegance found in a glass of Bordeaux.

Two years later, during a regular tasting club hosted by wine authority Michael Fridjhon, casual banter between Mogase and managing partner of Richemont Johann Rupert led to the genesis of the Epicurean brand.

The conversation would lead to Rupert offering the facilities of what was at the time the relatively new winery — Rupert & Rothschild — to the group to start producing their own wine. Today, Epicurean is still made on the property.

And so, in 2003, Epicurean would come to be, the proprietors setting out to create a South African wine, the calibre of which they had enjoyed abroad. Once again, gathering around a table to enjoy fine wine together, this time with the intention of creating one of their own. They all pulled bottles from their respective cellars and began tasting — an exercise now undertaken every year to benchmark Epicurean.

They knew from the offset what they wanted — a Bordeaux blend, though lighter in style to what South Africa was used to, and one they could enjoy aplenty. Rather than go after a particular blend structure, the founders decided on making a wine of aromatic harmony, elegance, complexity and longevity — four pillars that remain the cornerstones of Epicurean Wines — using the best available grapes per vintage.

The first blend was predominantly merlot with cabernet sauvignon, in 2004 the inverse with cabernet sauvignon supporting merlot. Then they started bringing in Cabernet Franc and other Bordeaux varieties, the Epicurean style, slowly but surely developing. The latest release, the 2015, a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet Franc & Petit Verdot.

The wines released after extended time in cellar is a testament to the proprietors’ determination to release wines only once they are ready to be enjoyed — though they still have years of cellaring potential.

The success of their red blend firmly cemented, 2018 saw Epicurean venture into white wines, with the vinification of their inaugural vintage of chardonnay. Sourced from a small parcel of Elgin vineyards, the wine also embodies the Epicurean standards of harmony, elegance, complexity and longevity. The wine would be released in 2020.

Now as they celebrate 20 years of Epicurean Wines, with three of the four founders still firmly involved in operations — Gault has taken a step back since moving to the US — they’re ready to take on the world, exploring channels not only into markets such as the US and Europe but, perhaps most excitingly, into Africa; expanding their circle of like-minded epicureans.

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with, before looking for something to eat and drink” is the fitting philosophy on which the brand has been built.

For this community, which started as four friends on a trip to France, is what the Epicurean journey has always been about. A shared passion for fine wine and sharing that passion — and their wines — with like-minded souls.