Australian Merlot

There was a time when my favourite Australian merlot and by some considerable margin at that, was Rosemount Show Reserve Merlot, a glorious wine from Rosemount’s Coonawarra vineyard. Released with some maturity, it was soft and silky, with sweet red and black berry fruits enhanced with earthy, gamey complexity and the appearance of flavours one might associate with the odour of decaying leaves in autumn. Fine, refined and supple, it was everything New World merlot could be; a wine to sit and mull over, to enjoy with fine lamb or venison.

But nobody could sell it. Priced just above $20 per bottle, it moved so slowly that even in 1997 you could still find the classic 1990 vintage languishing on the shelves. So Rosemount made a sad, but inevitable decision. Most of the vineyard would be converted to cabernet sauvignon, while any remaining merlot would be sold exclusively to the northern hemisphere, where it was understood and appreciated. And that was only in 1994! Fortunately, but too late for myself and for the few others who used to enjoy this wine, Australians are finally getting their heads around merlot.

An earlier-ripening grape than cabernet sauvignon, merlot tends to outperform it in cooler years. It has a sumptuous, generous middle palate, and plenty of it. A distant viticultural relative of cabernet sauvignon, merlot has been selected over the centuries for its ability to blend well with and supplement its more illustrious cousin. Almost permanently consigned as a poor relation, it’s little wonder it’s struggled to make a name for itself.

Real merlot has stacks of individual character and distinction. It combines some of the richness and astringency of cabernet sauvignon with the fleshiness, suppleness and sweetness of fruit expression of a premier pinot noir. While youthful its flavour can suggest violets, tobacco leaves and sweet small red and black berries. Like pinot, it can develop rustic, earthy complexity with bottle-age. Its tannins, able to soften sufficiently to uncloak the sweetness of its fruit, tend to ensure its ability to mature for longer than pinot noir, if not for as long as cabernet sauvignon. It brings a winning ability to mature quickly as a straight varietal wine and certainly helps cabernet-based blends to become more drinkable sooner.

But don’t expect too much from merlot too soon. While Australian reds are sought after wherever red wine is enjoyed, there’s still not a single merlot made here that comes close to being our best red wine. Furthermore, while merlot has been planted almost like a weed in the United States and boasts the largest area under vine of all the red varieties in Bordeaux, there’s still no large-volume Australian merlot of any true international consequence.

There’s no single reason why varietal merlot been so elusive in Australia. Broadly speaking it was introduced here to fill out and flesh out the palate structure of cool-climate cabernet. The over-supply of thin, weedy cool-climate cabernets from many parts of southern Australia have sopped up merlot like a sponge, usually to good effect. Many vignerons, believing themselves to have planted vineyards to merlot around a decade ago, have since discovered their vines instead to be cabernet franc, a close but lesser relative from Bordeaux which plays a very different role in red wine. It’s only of late that Australian vignerons have begun considering varietal red wines from other than cabernet sauvignon and shiraz and have had access to enough merlot to do something about it.

For all that, it’s far too early to define an Australian merlot. Should we follow the supple, complex, but essentially fruit-driven French style? Or the more powerful, kernelly, earthy Californian model? Or the equally valid but leaner and more astringent Italian version? Perhaps it’s best left to seeing exactly what our growers and makers can come up with from their inestimable diversity of vineyard sites and climates.

Here’s an inkling of who’s doing the best with Australian merlot to date:


The Top Australian Merlots:

Clarendon Hills Merlot

Massive, opulent outsize merlot which, like several other reds from this stable, tends towards the porty with the 1996 release. Thick layers of ripe, concentrated fruit is offset against punchy chocolate oak in a Parkerised package to suit those who like their merlot BIG. Best vintages: 1994, 1995.

Evans and Tate Margaret River Merlot

Earthy, old-fashioned and complex merlot from the Margaret River. Tends to lack the fruit sweetness of the better wines from the east of the country, but can cellar well. Best vintages: 1991, 1995.

Heggies

From the Eden Valley comes this sometimes herbal, greenish wine, which appears to have turned the corner with an excellent, riper wine from the 1993 vintage. Complex, autumnal and gamey, it shows great potential. Best vintages: 1993, 1994, 1995.

James Irvine Grand Merlot

Sumptuous, assertive, robust merlot built to last using concentrated Eden Valley fruit and toasty oak treatment bordering on the opulent. Criticised in some quarters for pronounced volatility, but recent vintages deliver the goods. Best vintages: 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994.

Katnook Estate

One of the Coonawarra makers to have specialised in this grape, Katnook’s is a restrained, supple style which emphasises the region’s ability to produce sweet, mulberry flavours and a soft, creamy palate structure. Best vintages: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996.

Leconfield Merlot

If the remarkable 1996 vintage is anything to go by, here’s the successor to Rosemount Show Reserve, albeit in a denser, more powerful package. Scented with violets and mint, this complex, musky wine presents excellent intensity of red and black berry fruit, with integrated chocolate and smoky cedar oak. Best vintage: 1996.

Pepper Tree Reserve Coonawarra Merlot

If the 1995 wine excited you, just wait for the 1996! Supremely elegant and refined, bursting with intense raspberries and sweet plums, violets, crushed leaves and dark chocolates, this extraordinary wine is sourced from the same vineyard development as the Parker Coonawarra First Growth. Undeniably brilliant and at $60 per bottle very competitive against the best from Europe. Best vintage: 1996.

Petaluma Coonawarra Merlot

Powerful, plummy Coonawarra merlot given de luxe French oak and released as an individual wine since Croser and friends discovered a remarkable wine lurking in barrel from the 1990 vintage. Needs at least ten years to soften out and to acquire characteristic fleshiness. Best vintages: 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995.

McAlister Merlot Noir

Stunning, sophisticated and refined, this supple and fine-grained wine from southeast Gippsland reveals exemplary small berry fruit qualities with earthy and tobaccoey complexity. It’s only released when Peter Edwards reckons his merlot is something really special. It generally is. Best vintages: 1990, 1993.

Taltarni Merlot

Firm, rich merlot made to cellar in the earthy, gamey Californian style. Better vintages are more plump and round than lesser wines. Dominique Portet and Greg Gallagher are generally seeking more generosity and concentration in their reds, which should suit their merlot down to the ground. Best vintages: 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996.

Other wines pushing for selection in this Top Ten include those made by Grant Burge, Hickinbotham, Oakridge, Shottesbrooke, Yarra Ridge and Yarra Yering, although the stratospheric prices sought for by the makers of the Oakridge and Yarra Yering merlots are to me more of a reflection of their scarcity than any particular elusive quality.

No assessment of Australian merlot would be complete without recognising the high quality of several very affordable wines sold under the labels of Trentham Estate, Kingston Estate, Preece and Leydens Vale. While it’s undeniable that the best Australian merlots are already priced well above $20 per bottle, these do offer genuine varietal character and style for well below. Please login to post comment