Merlot and its blends can run the gamut from lean, green and sharp (unfortunately there are still some around) to more generous, ripe reds with a firm backbone.
A winemaker once told me that sometimes just a week will make the difference between picking fruit that tastes sharp, and fruit that is ripe and generous with hints of dark chocolate.
As always with wine, getting the balance right is everything.
Sileni Cellar Selection Merlot 2008
$19.
This may be a lightish wine, but ripe fruit hinting of chocolate and spice with hints of toasty oak make it attractive.
Mills Reef Reserve Hawkes Bay Merlot 2008
$25
Spicy with hints of chocolate, fruitcake and dried fruit, this wine has savoury undertones, and an attractive mouthfeel and aftertaste.
It's drinking well now.
Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Te Kahu 2008
$25.
This merlot blended with cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and malbec hints of blackberry, has generous fruit supported by spicy oak, firm tannins and a dry finish.
Delicious now, and probably for another two or three years.
Sacred Hill Halo Hawkes Bay Merlot Cab. Sauvignon Cab. Franc 2008
$26
An assertive, edgy wine with dark blackcurrant fruit and firm tannins.
It is a tad extractive and brash at present.
Man o'War Waiheke Merlot Cabernet Franc Malbec 2008
$28
From Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf, this is a big wine, spicy and leathery, with ripe fruit and firm, slightly grippy tannins.
It will develop with bottle age.
Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Merlot 2008
$30
A deep, brooding wine, fragrant with dark berries, plums and rich fruitcake, supported by spicy oak and hints of dark chocolate, and finishing with a long, savoury aftertaste.
Effortlessly balanced and delicious.
Although wine sent for review is tasted blind to eliminate preconceptions, all wine tasting and evaluation is subjective.
These are personal recommendations.