Four Cousins Natural Sweet Red
£11.49
£15.32 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Out of Stock
Soft, juicy and gently sweet, this is South Africa's biggest-selling everyday red for a reason. Ruby-bright with ripe plum, wild strawberry and a lift of exotic spice, it's the kind of easy-drinking bottle you serve lightly chilled with a takeaway curry or a bowl of fresh berries. Uncomplicated, sociable, and impossible not to like.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Expert curated
Our Verdict
We list plenty of serious reds, but there's a place on every shelf for a wine like this. Four Cousins Natural Sweet Red is the bottle we recommend to anyone stepping into red wine for the first time, to customers hunting for something to match a fiery curry night, and to expats who grew up drinking it at family braais back home. It's not trying to be clever. It's trying to be delicious, and it absolutely is. Serve it chilled, keep expectations relaxed, and it will out-charm bottles at three times the price.
Tasting Notes
Bright ruby in the glass, with a perfumed lift of rose petal and crushed strawberry drifting up first. Ripe plum follows, plump and juicy, threaded through with a whisper of exotic spice (think cinnamon and clove rather than black pepper). The palate is soft and gently sweet, low in tannin, with fresh red fruit carrying through to a clean, uncomplicated finish. Nothing to unpick or analyse; just easy, fragrant, feel-good drinking.
About This Wine
Some wines demand your full attention. This one just wants to make your evening easier. Four Cousins Natural Sweet Red is the bottle you pour when the takeaway arrives, when friends drop by unannounced, or when the idea of decanting anything sounds like too much work. It's soft, fruity, gently sweet, and unapologetically friendly. Expect a fragrant nose of rose petals and ripe plum, with strawberry compote and a whisper of exotic spice underneath. The palate follows through with juicy red fruit and a low-tannin, off-dry finish that glides rather than grips. Serve it lightly chilled, straight from the fridge in summer, and it comes alive. This is a blend of red cultivars from the Retief family's Van Loveren estate in the Robertson Valley, a warm, dry pocket of the Western Cape where lime-rich soils and cooling ocean breezes ripen fruit generously while keeping everything fresh and lifted. It's brilliant with anything spicy: a fragrant Thai green curry, a lamb rogan josh, sticky Korean chicken wings. Equally happy alongside a fruit salad, a chocolate pudding, or simply on its own on a warm evening. And because Four Cousins is South Africa's best-selling bottled wine, sending a bottle to a homesick Saffa in the UK is guaranteed to raise a smile. We deliver across the UK, straight to your door.
Food Pairing
This is where a sweet red really earns its keep. The sweetness tames chilli heat and hugs bold spice, making it a genuinely brilliant partner for a Friday-night curry or a smoky Cape Malay chicken. It also slips happily into pudding territory, alongside a berry crumble, chocolate brownies, or a simple bowl of fresh fruit salad.
- —Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice
- —Cape Malay bobotie
- —Thai red beef curry
- —Warm chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream
- —Fresh strawberry and raspberry fruit salad
How to Serve
Decanting
No decanting needed. This is a soft, low-tannin, fruit-driven style that shows its best straight from the bottle; extra air will only dull the perfumed strawberry and rose lift.
Ageing & Cellaring
Made to be enjoyed young and vibrant. There is no benefit to cellaring this one; the whole point is the vivid, perfumed fruit, which fades rather than develops with time. Pop it in the fridge, pull the cork, and drink it while it is fresh.
The Land
Lime-rich soils along the Breede River give Robertson its signature backbone of freshness, while alluvial pockets closer to the water hold enough moisture to carry vines through the dry summers. Combine that with cooling ocean breezes funnelled between the Langeberg and Riviersonderend ranges, and you get ripe, perfumed red fruit with lift underneath.
The Winemaking
Blended from red cultivars picked ripe and generous, with a portion of sweet grape juice held back and returned to the blend to lift the finish into gentle sweetness. Extraction is deliberately soft, keeping tannins low and the fruit centre-stage. There is no oak to get in the way. The result is a fragrant, ruby-red pour built for freshness rather than structure, bottled young to catch the plum and strawberry at their most vivid.
The Western Cape Region
Le Domaine draws its fruit from vineyards scattered across the Western Cape, from coastal sites cooled by Atlantic breezes to warmer inland slopes, all planted between 50 and 300 metres above sea level. This broad sourcing is deliberate. By blending components from different microclimates, the cellar builds a consistent house style that balances the crisp acidity of cooler sites with the ripe generosity of warmer ones. It's the Western Cape's extraordinary diversity captured in a single glass.
About the Producer
Van Loveren Family Vineyards
The Retief family have farmed in the Robertson Valley since 1937, when Hennie Retief snr bought the land and, on his wife's suggestion, named it Van Loveren after an ancestor who arrived at the Cape in 1699. Sweet wines and brandy came first, dry whites followed in the 1970s, and the Van Loveren label launched in 1980. Then in 2000 four cousins from the next generation (Bussell, Hennie, Phillip and Neil) put their heads together and created Four Cousins: a range built around family tables, easy sharing and everyday celebration. It has since grown into South Africa's biggest-selling bottled wine brand. Bussell makes the wine, Hennie and Neil look after the vines, Phillip runs the business. Still family, still Robertson.