Just as the Americans are doing with shiraz, we’re planting merlot like there’s no tomorrow. And to continue the analogy, a market mightn’t really exist for it, the public don’t really understand it and our winemakers are undecided about what merlot really should taste like. But that doesn’t seem to matter. Into the ground it goes and under an ever-widening spectrum of wine labels merlot will shortly appear. For, like sailors drawn towards rocks by the sirens of Grecian myth, we have been lured by release after release of apparently ‘definitive’ Australian merlot from makers like Petaluma, James Irvine, Katnook Estate, Evans and Tate and Yarra Yering. But what is merlot really about? Is it delicate, herby and early-maturing, with softness and fineness, or is it instead powerful and assertive, with drying and astringent tannin that demands time in the cellar? Most Australians don’t really understand the grape, even the judges of the recent Canberra Wine Show, who gave their Merlot trophy to a simple, alcoholic and confection-like wine made by Tyrrell’s from McLaren Vale fruit, sending rather an odd message to would-be makers of top-notch Australian merlot. Perhaps we’re just going to have to accept that merlot isn’t that easy to define. That was the clear impression from a substantial and not inexpensive tasting of world merlots held just prior to Wine Australia in Melbourne by Pepper Tree Wines, the small Hunter-based maker which has staked its reputation on its ability to make world-class merlot from Coonawarra fruit. At Pepper Tree’s ‘Merlot Masters’ its own wine is stacked up against a carefully chosen bracket of international merlots of some note. That’s a brave move, and speaks volumes for the no-holds-barred approach of Pepper Tree and its chief winemaker, Chris Cameron. Neither of the four Australian merlots on show finished in the top half (of nineteen entries). One of these was a very tired and greenish looking bottle of James Irvine Grand Merlot 1996, while another was a wine that I expected to perform better – Pepper Tree’s own Coonawarra Reserve from 1996, a wine that has impressed me greatly in past tastings. Along with the simple confection-like Tatachilla Clarendon Vineyard Merlot 1998 and a dirty, brackish and vegetal Clarendon Hills Merlot 1995, I marked the Pepper Tree down for its simplicity relative to the more impressive wines. These were headed by the powerful 1996 Chateau Troplong Mondot (19.2, drink 2008-2016+) from St Emilion (comprising 10% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon) and an exceptional American wine, the elegant and pristine Hawley Dry Creek Valley Merlot 1997 (18.8, drink 2008-2016) from Sonoma. Given its obvious links with cabernet sauvignon, nobody should be surprised that merlot makes great wines of startling differences in different parts of the world. But unlike pinot noir, which is almost inevitably put up against good Burgundy, merlots from the US, France, Italy and even Australia should be able to create their own benchmarks. While the Troplong Mondot was the most impressive of the Bordeaux reds in the tasting, the line-up did feature two of the new, highly expensive small-production ‘garagiste’ wines, La Mondotte 1996 (18.3, drink 2004-2008, 75% merlot, 25% cab. franc) and Le Tertre Rotebouef 1996 (16.6, drink 1998-2001, 80% merlot, 20% cabernet franc). Wild, spicy, savoury and highly acidic, La Mondotte is fermented with wild yeast, fined but never filtered, only racked after malolactic fermentation is complete. It’s supple, reserved and bursts with vibrant blackberry and mulberry fruit. Le Tertre Roteboeuf was less impressive, its briary fruit already fading while the distinctive horsey scent of brettanomyces spoilage is beginning to emerge. Of the other Bordeaux reds, the Cheval Blanc 1995 (17.8, drink 2015+, St-Emilion, 66% cabernet franc, 34% merlot) was typically oaky, robust and unyielding; the very over-done and chunky La Conseillante 1995 (15.2, drink 2000-2003, Pomerol, 70% merlot, 25% cabernet franc, 5% malbec) was rather meaty and medicinal. The two Pomerols from 1997 at the tasting, Chateau Gazin (15.3, 2002-2005, 90% merlot, 7% cabernet sauvignon, 3% cabernet franc) and the Chateau Trotanoy (15.0, drink 1999-2002, 80% merlot, 10% cabernet franc, 10% other) were extremely disappointing, especially at the prices they fetch. Both appear to follow the same Parkerised formula, for each is crammed full of artefact and barrel ferment influence which does its best to conceal skinny, inadequate and under-ripe fruit. This tasting and recent experience of mine showed me just how far ahead the US is of Australia in the merlot department. Established Napa Valley classic labels like Duckhorn and Beringer’s Howell Mountain Merlot, plus emergent brands like Hawley, Neyers and Lewis Cellars, produce wines of rich flavours, sumptuous textures and polished tannins. And they can even be elegant. The new Washington state merlots look even more exciting. They’re finer and more restrained, and the best, such as Stimson Lane’s Northstar (Columbia Valley) display astonishingly briary intensity. Given more time and experience, their makers will stretch the limits if they can match the finesse displayed by the leading Napa producers. But the Americans certainly don’t have it all their own way. As witnessed by a hot, hard and meaty Rutherford Hill Merlot 1997 (15.1, drink 2002-2005, Napa Valley), a porty, treacly and over-cooked Arrowood Merlot 1997 (15.2, drink 2002-2005,Sonoma) plus a vegetative and varnishy S. Anderson Stags Leap Merlot 1997 (15.0, drink 1999-2002, Napa, Carneros), some makers are miles off the mark. The two Italian merlots opened for the Merlot Masters, both Tuscan, were easily amongst the tasting’s best wines. Frescobaldi’s Lamaione 1995 (18.6, drink 2007-2015+) is typically firm and tightly astringent, with a typically sour edge to its cherry/plum fruit. Its tarry, lightly leathery and earthy aromas and palate structure could hardly be more constrasting to the Troplong Mondot, La Mondotte or Cheval Blanc, the three best-performing St-Emilions in the tasting. The other Italian was the Palazzi 1998 (18.5, drink 2006-2010), an outrageously priced Italian ‘vin de garage’ from the Tenuta di Trinoro, whose violet aromas, assertive fine-grained oak, intense flavours of squashed dark fruit, and lean, tight palate of cassis and mulberries culminate in a long, tight and savoury finish. You wouldn’t want these Italian wines made any other way, for each is reflective of its region and contributes something to the serious, very pleasurable and very valid possibilities offered by the merlot grape. New Zealand is presently being touted as an emergent force in merlot, with the wines from Goldwater Estate (Waiheke Island) and CJ Pask (Hawkes Bay) being paramount in the promotion thereof. I’ve found a greenish thread throughout the various vintages of Goldwater I have tasted, and was unpleasantly surprised by the showing of the multi-award winning CJ Pask Reserve Merlot 1998 (14.0, drink 2000-2003). This wine was largely taken from vineyards planted on the stony Gimblett Road soils in Hawkes Bay, whose warmer microclimate does give its fruit a much better chance to ripen fully. I’ve tasted the Pask wine out of barrel and raved about it, and so was entirely unprepared for the minty, varnishy offering presented at the Merlot Masters which was entirely dominated by assertive pencil shavings oak and reductive influences. It was a very ordinary wine whose problems were hopefully confined to that bottle, although that would seem unlikely to me. So, what are the messages for the would-be makers and drinkers of top-class New World merlot? Firstly, there’s no longer any excuse for green and under-ripe or poorly exposed fruit characters in this wine. Secondly, the idea that it’s a simple, soft palate-filler for cabernet sauvignon is utterly extinct. Merlot can and frequently does make a more powerful and extractive wine than cabernet sauvignon from the same year and the same vineyard. The Troplong-Mondot clearly showed that you can indeed combine power and elegance in merlot. Its balance and its careful handling of oak, 70% of which was new, the remainder second use, proves that you don’t need 100% new wood to fashion contemporary wines of exceptional pedigree. The Hawley Merlot (all ‘mountain’ fruit, 89% merlot, 11% cabernet sauvignon) shows you can create a wine of rare complexity without sacrificing the essential purity and intensity of small berry fruit; and that great merlot doesn’t have to be either herbaceous or, on the other hand, blocky. The Lamaione is an essay in the handling of astringent tannic, which it presents without sacrificing one iota of restraint, while another excellent American wine, the Lewis Cellars Reserve Merlot 1997 (Napa Valley) proves that provided you’re not trying to make the wine evolve too quickly, big can be beautiful. It’s densely structured, multi-layered and concentrated, but also natural and balanced. So, as Chris Cameron is only all too aware, it’s all in front of us Australians. Given that wines like Katnook Estate’s 1998 Merlot, the Petaluma Merlots of 1997 and 1998, the Pepper Tree Reserve from 1996 – which I still believe has improvement ahead of it – plus the series of excellent Rosemount Estate Merlots made around the turn of the 1990s all came from Coonawarra, you’d expect the first truly great Australian merlot to be a Coonawarra wine. Perhaps it’s already been made, perhaps from 1998. We shall discover in time. The Yarra Valley is the next most likely source of Australia’s prestige merlot, as some wines from Coldstream Hills, Yarra Yarra and Mount Mary (made only rarely) already have shown. The message to drinkers is perhaps all too familiar, especially if they’re used to buying pinot noir. It’s too early for a benchmark Australian merlot, although if I had to pick a single wine at this moment it would perhaps be Petaluma’s 1998 effort, which was not part of this year’s Merlot Masters. There are and will be a lot more ordinary merlots, from regions and makers of great repute. The merlot landscape is changing quickly, and there’s no doubt we have yet to see the best from Tuscany, Washington, Hawkes Bay, Coonawarra, even St-Emilion and perhaps Pomerol. So buy carefully, don’t just order by indent without a good reason, and be prepared for the disappointments. Let’s hope the successes will more than make up for them.
