Merlot

The Chatterer Merlot Cabernet will definitely get tongues wagging with its depth of blackberry and blueberry fruit flavours, full and rounded body and outstanding character. This wine offers fabulous value for money and beautiful aromas of soft plums and dark berry fruits. 

The 2021 vintage was great in Hawke's Bay and that comes through in every complex sip. 

Fleshy, soft, smooth Merlot from Pays D'Oc in the south of France. Beautiful youthful red made for immediate consumption with satisfying depth of ripe plum flavours supported by moderate oak support for complex flavour notes and a lingering finish. Made with grapes grown on the slopes of the Orb Valley and Herald's Valley in the south of France. 

Great value for money.

Commercial description

Bordering the old Waiheke Air Strip this vineyard produces world-class Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot.

Planted when their children were barely walking, John and Paul Dunleavy?s vines have matured over two decades and, like their children, bring their own unique character to this wine.

Aged in barrels for 10 months, but made in a forward, fruit driven style to be enjoyed in youth, The Strip will continue to improve over time with careful cellaring.

The 2015 Ch?teau Croix Cardinale is a rich dry and flavourful blend of 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc with lifted red fruit flavours of raspberry coulis and strawberries. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, bright acidity, balanced and poised with a delineated, slightly earthy finish that has just the right amount of dryness to urge another sip. 

What the critics say
A rich, unctuous wine, the 2015 Croix Cardinale is laced with dark cherry, plum, torrefaction, chocolate, tobacco, spice and leather. The super-ripe, late-harvest approach yields a powerful wine endowed with considerable depth and richness, but less in the way of aromatic intensity or freshness. The blend is 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc, brought in between October 13 and 20, which is to say very late for the year. In my view, this is picked too late and overdone, even among wines made in a similar style.
88-91 /100
Antonio Galloni 

Sophia is part of Craggy Range's Prestige Collection, which is the winery's top tier of wines and only released in the best years. 

Sophia is a Merlot blend, modelled on right bank Bordeaux classics. This wine includes 19% Cabernet Franc and 81% Merlot. All grapes were hand picked and 100% destemmed with fermentation all taking place in French oak cuves with innoculated yeasts. The wine was matured in French oak barriques, 45% new, for 18 months and bottled without fining but with a coarse filtration to retain as much weight, tannin and flavour as possible. This is a wine for the long haul and will reward decanting now as well as aging for up to a decade. 

Ch?teau Chantalouette is the second wine of Ch?teau de Sales. Owned by the same family for over five centuries, the 116 acre estate is the largest in the appellation and boasts the only true castle of Pomerol.

The vineyards here are composed of 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon on small gravel and iron-rich loess.

Vinification is managed delicately, leading to beautifully crafted wines that are expressive of their terroir. Traditional racking and light egg-white fining help to preserve the brightness of the fruit.

Chantalouette is named after one of the larger parcels constituting the vineyard of Ch?teau de Sales. The wine is charming, round, elegant, and approachable from a young age.

"Composed of 78% Merlot and 22% Cabernet Franc, the 2018 Chambrun is deep garnet-purple in color with warm blackberries, black cherry pie and blueberry compote with touches of fried herbs and cedar. The palate is medium to full-bodied with bags of vibrant fruit and a firm frame of rounded tannins, finishing long and refreshing."

Rating (90 - 92)+

Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown

VINEYARDS Parcels of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were hand-picked from selected sites on the  gravel soils of the old Ngaruroro River, and old vine Merlot from the Bridge Pa region.  Bridge Pa Triangle soils feature fine silt loam over red metal gravels, while the gravel sites protected by Roys Hill, feature gravel over fine silt. These sites are free draining and low in fertility, resulting in struggling vines producing fruit of great concentration. Low yielding vines, open canopy management, managed irrigation and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand farmed were common to all sites. Bridge Pa Merlot delivers ripe, dark plums which compliments the spicy brighter fruits from the gravels. Cabernet thrives on gravel sites and contributes structure, acidity and fragrant berry fruit notes. 

WINEMAKING Batches of hand harvested fruit was chilled overnight before processing the following day. Chilled bunches were hand sorted and de-stemmed, and whole berries were transferred to open fermenters with some foot stomping. Whole bunches were also incorporated in some of the Merlot fermenters. The berries were cold soaked before fermentation, with pumping over twice per day then pressed to barriques at the  end of fermentation. The Merlot and Cabernet matured for 21 months in new and  seasoned French oak barriques. Blended in December 2019 and bottled in January  2020, the final blend is approximately 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. 

SENSORY An elegant Merlot Cabernet blend which exhibits lifted aromatics of fragrant  berry fruits, sweet French oak, and underlying lavender and thyme. Complex and  textural, seamless tannins harmoniously support red and black fruits, earthiness,  and spice. Tautly poised to develop beautifully with bottle age.

For this Druif, we macerated Merlot grapes of Claus Preisinger for more than eight months on three-and-a-half-year-old lambik. Afterwards, we blended with some more four-year-old lambik. We used lambikken originating from three different barrels and seven different brews. The weighted average age of this grape lambik is
more than 44 months. The final fruit proportion is 380 grams of Merlot grapes per litre of Druif. A few years ago, we started working with the most progressive low-intervention
winemakers around Europe. Claus Preisinger is renowned for his innovative approach in his vineyard, involving natural and regenerative farming. His Weingut is located in Burgenland, Austria

8.7% ABV

Commercial description

Our Merlot Cabernet Franc comes from our Cornerstone vineyard growing in Hawke's Bays' famed Gimblett Gravels appellation. An area renowned for producing excellent hot climate reds. We think Cornerstone is the jewel in the appellation's crown but there again we are rather biased!

In our Iris blend, the Merlot sets up the palate with ripeness and structure while the Cabernet Franc brings its sweet dried basil notes to create our deliciously good medium-bodied red

Chateau Larroque is based just outside the 'Graves' appellation in the southern part of Bordeaux.  Made from the classic blend of Bordeaux grapes, and matured for 12 months in French oak before further aging in bottle.

On first opening, medium bodied on the palate, red cherry and dried fruits, toasted almonds with dusty savoury bramble and spice. Once given a chance to breathe opens up to offer generous plump juicy dark fruits, cassis and liquorice.

Superb value for 'left bank' Bordeaux.

A lovely traditionally styled left bank Bordeaux from a Cru Bourgeois property in the north of Medoc. The vines were fully replanted in the late 70's with 47% Cabernet, 45% Merlot, 5% Cab Franc and 3% Petit Verdot and the wine offers lovely concentrated dark bramble fruits with beautifully integrated tannins and acid.