Flametree Cabernet Merlot 2007 (Margaret River, WA)
Screwcap, $27

You can’t see it in this picture, but the bottle is weighed down with gold stickers – 3 trophies & 2 gold medals on the bottle alone. Perhaps most surprising is the missing sticker – that of the 2008 Jimmy Watson trophy. With that weight of gold hanging around its neck, its quite surprising that this stuff is still available – though I have noticed the price creeping over $30 on some sites, in a blatant attempt to cash in on its show successes.

Purple edged with a medium colour intensity it looks youthful and bright in the glass. The nose is a lovely, varietally correct, modern concoction of Blackcurrant, a little formic acid and cedar, all caressed by ‘McDonalds Chocolate Thickshake’ toasted vanilla French Oak. It smells polished, sweet & very very new world and I think its the nose that won this wine its bling.

On the palate however its a bit of a disappointment, the sweet sweet fruit is swamped by oak, the tail end a sour acid & oak tannin drenched beast. The sappy astringency of oak marring the finish, branding this wine as oak driven, with that oak lingering as a bad taste long after the wine has gone.

In the washup, I only wish that the decadence of the nose could match the palate. Time will do this wine even more favours, but in the meantime it will remain nothing more than a show wine.
I think that I have scored this right, though its pretty easy to fall into the Tall Poppy trap. The finish killed the gold medal chances that the nose setup however. 16.5+