南澳 Merlot @ 雅得蕊 2009/11/27

結果印象最深刻的是最後一瓶的 special。
未成年請勿飲酒

My first wine tasting at 雅得蕊. They invited James Irvine, the owner of Irvin winery, to introduce the Merlots.

Irvine winery is located in the Barossa, Eden Valley, northeast of Adelaide, South Australia.

Hanging Rock Winery Gralaine Merlot 2004

The vineyard is near Mount Duneed.
Light sweet, plum, floral, oak, licorice. Supple tannin. Turn to a little sour after 1.5 hours.

Sandurst Ridge Merlot 2004

Concentrated black berry, cinnamon, light tangerine (I like it), smoky. Turn to a little bit pickled vegetables flavor after a while, but not an annoying flavor. :p
Smooth mouthfeel, ready to drink. However, the palate is not as interesting as its nose. :p

Best Winery Great Western Merlot 2004

Cherry, rose. The palate includes good acidity, fruity and cinnamon. Contrastively, palate is better than nose.

Barratt Wines Piccadilly Valley Merlot 2003

Plum, light black pepper, vanilla. Strong body. Mouthfeel starts as sweet, but also brings great acidity at the end.
Still young.

Katnook Estate Winery Estate Merlot 2005

lower tone nose. Young. Fruity and juicy. Black berry, soil and grass. 😀

Irvine Wines Estate Merlot 2007

Coffee, chocolate. Strong body, but still too young.
Well, I can not remember too many details about this one, because the next one is so special.

Irvine Wines Merlot 2008

Mr. Irvine showed this wine in a non-labeled bottle, because this wine just finished the barreled period and was just bottled a few days ago. This wine was made by Mr. Irvine's daughter, who was a wine contest winner by her Zinfendel. After her winning of an award, Mr. Irvine made a concession to her to cultivate Zinfandel in his winery, and let her to make this Merlot in 2008.

Strawberry and roselle. I was think this is a young Zinfandel before Mr. Irvine said this is made by Merlot. Amazing!