I’ve often wondered how much cooler Pete Logan’s wines would be if they were from the Yarra Valley. Or Gippsland. The Adelaide Hills even. Anywhere but Mudgee, which remains deeply uncool.

Of course that’s a misnomer too, for Pete’s wines are sourced largely from Orange these days, even if the operation is based in Mudgee. Orange they may be, but Logan still gets called a Mudgee producer. Hence uncool.What is irritating about such a generalisation (that Mudgee wines are uncool) is simply how much interesting booze comes out of ‘The Mudge’. As I detailed a few years ago here Mudgee can and is producing interesting wine.

Anyway, this Cabernet Merlot isn’t from Mudgee so I can save my ranting for another time…

Instead this is an almost too-serious wine for its pricepoint – altogether too bony, too structural and too grown up for a $25 Cab Merlot. It smells of cedar, violets and spice and a little herbs, over a dry, high acid palate touched with a hint of animal hide. This flaunts with under-ripeness before stepping back in with enough juice to carry the wine forward.

Too serious by half, but you know what? Kudos Pete Logan for making it the way he wants. As you should when your name is on the label really…