Tag Archives: Merlot

Wirra Wirra Church Block 2005

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This wine’s full subtitle is “Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz – Merlot;” 47%, 35% and 18% respectively. 


Red-purple in colour, moderately dense. Nose bursts forth with sweet, ripe fruit of the blue and black variety. It’s very ripe, perhaps overripe for some tastes (there’s something almost spirity about it), but there’s no doubting how generous and up front is its flavour. There are also elements of spice and chocolate that squeeze in alongside all that fruit and add some savoury interest. The palate is dominated by more ripe fruit, quite sweet, and again perhaps too big for some tastes. Wines in this style succeed or fail almost entirely on the quality and interest of the fruit’s flavour profile and, in this wine’s favour, there’s at least some complexity of fruit character. But it’s unchallenging and, I suspect, designed for consumption without too much analysis. Acidity is soft and fine. Tannins prickle the finish but aren’t especially prominent or drying. Rather, still more fruit gushes through the after palate and sticks around for a little time on the finish. 

You have to admire a wine style that is so sure of what it is, even if it’s not entirely to your taste. We had this with dinner and it’s not a very food friendly style, lacking the structure to truly complement a meal. Instead, I would drink this on its own, perhaps even after dinner, to warm your insides and satisfy that craving for a McLaren Vale fruit bomb we all feel from time to time…
 
Price: $A21
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: January 2008


Château Saint-Georges 2002

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This is a Merlot-dominant (60%) blend that also includes some Cabernet Sauvignon (20%) and Cabernet Franc (20%). 2002 isn’t considered an especially stellar vintage for Merlot in Bordeaux, although some consider the vintage generally underrated, producing less fruit forward but classically styled wines. This wine is from the

Dan Aykroyd "Discovery Series" Cabernet-Merlot 2006

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At my local LCBO, two shelves below the Wayne Gretzky Unoaked Chardonnay, I found Dan Aykroyd’s wines dangerously close to the salt and snow stained floor.
One thing to be understood about Canadians is that essentially we are Marsha from The Brady Bunch. Just as in our cinema, when it comes to wines Canadians have to be coaxed into believing they’re good enough, smart enough and pretty enough. This means selling Canadian wines to Canadians is probably harder than it needs to be. In comes the recent rash of celebrity wines to lend a solution to that problem.
So I put on my Bill Murray Clothing Shirt and cracked a bottle of Dan Aykroyd Discovery Series Cabernet Merlot 2006. At $16.95 (+$0.05 bottle deposit) this prices it just about in the dead centre for an Ontario produced and cellared wine. Other than an iridescent microphone the label isn’t silly or kitsch. This wine wants you to take it seriously, so I did.
The nose has something in it. I think it’s strawberry? It’s faint. It could be blackberry or other berries. But it’s hardly present. Huge oak flavours and way too much sulphur. It’s retarded how sulphuric this stuff is. Afterwards some mouth feel and residual sulphur remains. And that’s about it. It’s like licking an oak tree while somebody farts in your face. The sulphur is very chemical, industrial even. Reminds me of the treated well water at my uncle’s farm.
I waited an hour for the sulphur to off gas. Eureka. Suddenly this is a different animal. The strawberries are gone and a little more typically berry flavoured. The bottle still smells like strawberries and sulphur. The tannic oaky flavour is still a bit strong for my taste but suddenly this is more like a bottle of cab-merlot that should cost $17, probably less. Not horribly remarkable but not bad at all. What was with the initial sulphur? Weird. It finished like a cheap date with that acidic feel on the teeth and not much of a taste other than, well, acid.
I’m glad Dan Aykroyd is investing in the wineries here on the Niagara Peninsula. But I think the whole idea behind the “Discovery Series” is to introduce people to wines they’ve never tried before. That makes sense. But I’m wondering if people who drink wine and buy $17 bottles at the LCBO have never had a really bold cab-merlot before? I guess that’s where lending a celebrity name comes into the picture.
If it had the Ghostbusters logo on it I’d review it better.
Dan Aykroyd [but really Lakeview]Price: C$16.95Closure: SyntheticDate tasted: January 2008

Chateau Puynormond 2004

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This wine is from the Montagne Saint-Emilion appellation in Bordeaux, and consists of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. And it’s cheap. Here goes.


The first thing that strikes one on the nose is what appears to be mild brett, but whether this is an issue depends very much on your tolerance for this particular wine fault. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of brett in the right dose (and the right wine). Here, it comes across as a metallic note that actually blends ok with the earthy, gravelly notes of the wine itself. It’s a subtle wine on the nose, dark in profile, but with some sweet black berry fruits peeping out around all the earth and gravel.

The entry is subtle and slips through to a middle palate where flavours start to register with more intensity. It’s predominantly a savoury wine in flavour profile, with earthy notes dominating a subtle but attractive layer of ripe blackberry fruit. Oak is pretty subliminal (I couldn’t detect much, if any, oak influence at all). Gentle acid is well integrated within the medium bodied palate and keeps the wine moving along nicely. The after palate is quite linear and progresses to a finish of fine, ripe tannins. No great length to speak of, but not short either. The overall impression of this wine is one of structure and elegance rather than ripe or juicy flavour.

If you’re a bit tolerant of brett, like I am, you will find this wine to be a reasonably priced Bordeaux that will accompany your mid-week dinner of beef or pork quite nicely.

Update: I left half the bottle overnight and retasted the next day. Marked improvement. The fruit has gained weight and fragrance, especially on the after palate, marginalising the brett influence to almost zero. Nice drop indeed. Might be best in a couple of years’ time.

Price: $A24
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: January 2008

Unison Vineyard Unison 2006

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This wine is Unison Vineyard’s signature wine, along with the “reserve” level Unison Selection. It’s a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from Estate grapes. The proportions of the blend are not specified, and deliberately so. When I queried Unison about this, I was told it views the Unison wine as a style whose blend may vary from year to year, so the exact percentage of each variety is really beside the point. It’s nice to encounter a producer with such a clear, confident vision.


Red-purple colour, not massively dense, pretty. The nose immediately presents bright, sweet red fruits within a billowy arena of pepper and dried flowers. It’s striking and bold, full of character, if a little simple and gangly. There’s good intensity on the nose and it showed consistency through the evening, with perhaps each element calming a little with time in glass. The entry and middle palate are equally forward, showing great line from nose to palate. The same flavour profile of

Montes Merlot 2005

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I suppose I was tempting fate by opening a cheapy after all the super Kiwi wines I’ve been having of late. However, one (or at least I) can’t drink at the $50 price point every day, so cheapies I must. We’re lucky in Australia to have a large range of reasonably priced wines that are far superior to industrial swill, so it has been reasonable to expect in the last few years that $15 or so will yield a wine of character and interest. So what does that amount of money buy one from Chile?


On the basis of this wine, a whole lot of DMS and not much else. On the nose, rather characterless with that signature DMS note of ultra blackcurrant flip-flopping with tinned corn (thankfully no two day old raw mussels). The entry is slippery and introduces a palate with more blackcurrant juice in the context of a mouthfeel that is all about smoothness. But it’s not tannin or acid smoothless, it’s actually a lack of these things that creates an almost watery effect. Certainly easy to drink, and for those challenged by a perceived “harshness” in most red wines might enjoy the ease of this wine. There are some sweet oak characters too, subtle and well judged in terms of what this wine is. Tannins start to creep in a little on the finish, but it’s nothing too harsh and doesn’t begin to challenge any other aspect of this wine.

So, what to think? Certainly, I found this wine boring to the extent of wondering what is its point. Reading the back label, the wine is described as an “elegant and refined wine with a marked fruitiness almost irresistible to Merlot lovers.” And yes, it has a “marked fruitiness” (if we accept the super blackcurrant juice flavour as fruit driven) that is inoffensive and very easy to drink. To be honest, though, there are a lot of local wines that are of considerably greater interest to this at a similar price point. 

Price: $A10
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2007

Bears' Lair California Merlot 2005

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Sure, the packaging isn’t gonna win any awards – the label looks like it was done in Microsoft Word 97 complete with early dot com era clip art, the capsule is cheap and flimsy, and the cork looks like someone scrounged it from a county fair, but the first whiff ain’t half bad – at first, generic industrial red wine, but then, suddenly, fresh red raspberries appear. There’s also a bit of dusty oak there – I’m assuming chips, shavings, something cheap – but it works just fine. There’s also a hint of sourness as well as something that’s either Mint or Murphy’s oil soap. All in all, surprisingly complex.Color-wise, it’s medium ruby red in the glass, bright and sparkling, pretty enough to look at it. The big surprise is when you take a taste of it: it’s full, round, not half bad. It seems kinda bit flabby – a bit too much residual sugar without supporting acidity, and it’s kind of dumb on the finish; it sticks around longer than you’d probably want it to, which I suppose makes it perfect for holiday gatherings (Kidding! Hi Dad!). It may be nothing special, but it’s better than most wines at this price point.Bears’ Lair (but really Bronco Wine Company)Price: US $3.99Closure: CorkDate tasted: December 2007

Unison Vineyard Marie's Vineyard Reserve Merlot 2006

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If you’re in the Hawkes Bay area, I strongly recommend a visit to Unison Vineyard. We dropped in and were greeted by the effusive and extremely passionate viticulturalist, who gave us a sensational tasting and lots of information about each wine, the vineyard, and the region generally. Oh, also they make a lovely olive oil (from Estate fruit) and a delicious Balsamic vinegar. This wine is their straight Merlot, priced reasonably and intended to be consumed sooner rather than later. Garnet colour, looking a bit older, perhaps, than one might expect from a 2006 vintage wine. Attractive, though. The nose is fabulous — a lifted, multifaceted flavour profile that passes through herbal, medicinal notes, dark fruits and some oak quite seamlessly. Overall, quite savoury and tight. The entry is subtle, and the wine builds intensity as the palate progresses. The middle palate is again quite savoury, with lots of dark fruit and more herbal flavours, and a sweet edge to keep things relatively easygoing. Medium weight palate with a nicely textured, rustic mouthfeel (somewhat Italianate, perhaps). Oak is reasonably prominent, and perhaps a little coarse in its sappiness, but never overwhelms the wine. The after palate starts to drop slightly in intensity before drying, slightly rustic tannins kick in to carry the wine off with good length. This is a very drinkable wine that will, I imagine, go very well with Italian food. A nice expression of Merlot that will please lovers of the more savoury side of this variety. Good value too.Unison VineyardPrice: $NZ24Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Offcuts

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To my shame, I’ve been drinking even more than I’ve been writing up while in New Zealand. Here are a few bits and pieces of marginal interest.Mission Estate Winery Hawkes Bay Merlot 2006I used most of this wine for cooking but swilled a glass once the casserole was underway. And whaddya know, it’s actually pretty good. Nice fruit, easygoing structure, no boiled lollies in sight. Definitely on the riper end of the spectrum for Merlot, and none the worse for that. Great quaffer. Wish all Aussies at this price point were as good. Fruit comes from various vineyards in the Hawkes Bay region, including the Gimblett Gravels.Mission Estate WineryPrice: $NZ14Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007Jacob’s Creek Shiraz 2005I don’t know what this wine is doing in here, but let’s just say that it was offered, and as we all know, it’s rude not to accept a gift.It’s actually not too bad, certainly a fault-free wine at the very least. The fruit flavour has that confected red fruit quality that screams “industrial” to me, but hey, it’s tasty and has lots of flavour. Not bad.Jacob’s CreekPrice: $NZ9Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007Matua Valley Late Harvest Muscat 2006I was having cravings the other night in Gisborne (just a few nights before the big earthquake, no less) and wandered up to the local supermarket to grab some dessert and, of course, wine to go with. I have no idea what grapes are in this wine, although the label does, at least, let the purchaser know that they are from the Gisborne wine region.There’s some nice, sweet fruit flavour here, a little “jasmine tea” in character, but harsh acidity quite overwhelms any sense of flavour. It’s not the sort of acidity that is cleansing or sprightly — it’s just harsh and unbalanced. Oh well.Matua Valley Price: $NZ12 (375ml)Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Te Mata Awatea Cabernet Merlot 2005

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Had a lovely, professional experience at the Te Mata cellar door, and was able to taste a sampling of their range, if not perhaps some of the “heavy hitters” (ie Coleraine). Ended up purchasing a few, of which this was one.
Varietally dusty Cabernet nose, but not dominatingly so, as the primary note is of fleshy dark berry fruits, with some oak in support. The entry is one of those that widens immediately to a generous middle palate — instant gratification, if you will. The wine is medium to full bodied, and quite fruit driven. The fruit is of high quality and satisfying depth, never even hinting at simple, confected flavours. Instead, it’s masses of dark, juicy fruit, perhaps on the less structured end of the spectrum as Cabernets go, but certainly not flabby. The palate is quite linear until the end, where it spikes in a gorgeous lift of red fruits, before fading away on a blanket of fine tannins.
What an excellent wine this is. If you’re looking for a “drink now” Cabernet that is full of flavour and not an ounce industrial, give it a go.
Te Mata EstatePrice: $NZ35Closure: CorkDate tasted: December 2007