Shaw Vineyard Estate Merlot 2014
Canberra Merlot. Now there’s not a pair of words you see together often. This is surprisingly serious too. Dominant coffee oak, backed by a meaty, mushroomy and ripe palate of quite firm proportions. It’s too ripe and too oaky, complete with a dollop of sharp acidify to finish, but the weight and intensity here are genuinely next level considering most Aussie Merlot. You’d almost swear it was propped up by Cabernet. Best drinking: Now to ten years. 17/20, 90/100. 14%, $28. Would I buy it? A glass.
2 Comments
Am just drinking their 2016 Cabernet and it is an excellent drop, but I can’t recall drinking a Canberra Merlot in the past. No reason why the grape shouldn’t work in that environment, though hardly expect Canberra to be dubbed the “new Bordeaux” in the near future.
Getting Merlot right is very hard. Poor clones doesn’t help. Merite wines in Wrattombully have done extensive work here.