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.
BEST UNDER $20
$19
This may be a lightish wine, but ripe fruit hinting of chocolate and spice with hints of toasty oak. Good value make it attractive.
Good value
Three stars (out of five)
sileni merlot 08.JPG
BEST VALUE
$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.
Good value
Four stars
millsreef merlot 08.JPG
BEST VALUE
$25
This merlot blended with some cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and malbec hints of ripe blackberry, chocolate and rich fruitcake, the generous fruit supported by spicy oak, firm, fine-grained tannins and a dry finish. Drinking deliciously now, and probably for another two or three years.
Good value
Four stars
craggy range te kahu 08.JPG
$26
An assertive, edgy wine with dark blackcurrant fruit and firm tannins. It is a tad extractive and brash at present.
Below average value
Two stars
halo cab sauv 08.JPG
$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.
Average value
Three stars (out of five)
man o war cab franc 08.JPG
$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, savouryaftertaste. Effortlessly balanced and delicious.
Good value
Five stars
craggy range merl 08.JPG
ANOTHER GLASS
Mills Reef Hawkes Bay Elspeth Merlot 2007
$40
Fragrant with hints of ripe dark fruit, undertones of dark chocolate, malt and pipe tobacco, oopulent in the mouth with a firm backbone of fine-grained tannins and a ripe berries on the aftertaste.
Four stars
Ti Point Two Matakana Merlot Cabernet Franc 2009
$21
A light wine with hints of dark fruit supported by dusty tannins and a fresh finish. A simple, easy drinking wine.
Average value
Two stars
Although wine sent for review is tasted blind to eliminate preconceptions, all wine tasting and evaluation is subjective. These are personal recommendations. charmian.smith@odt.co.nz
Two stars - simple, clean, enjoyable wine; three stars - good wine with varietal characteristics; four stars - very good wine with some outstanding characteristics; five stars - outstanding wine with balance and harmony that leaves you with a sense of wonder.
