2010 Brown Brothers Merlot Heathcote

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 88 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View forceberry's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/16/2014 - forceberry wrote: 88 Points

  Aged only in used French oak barrels.
  
  Translucent, youthful ruby red color. Rich, ripe and quite fruit-forward nose with aromas of strawberries, juicy red fruits, some savory and slightly toasty old wood and a hint of roasted - almost charred - meat. The wine is quite ripe, but surprisingly firm and serious on the palate with medium body, moderately high acidity and slightly grippy medium tannins. This sense of definition and seriousness comes as a bit of a surprise - obviously the wine isn't your typical, fruity, run-of-the-mill Merlot. Overall the wine comes across as pretty meaty and somewhat savory with along with flavors of sour cherry bitterness, some spicy old oak character, a little bit of oaky toffee, a hint of fresh black cherry and a touch of tart red fruit. The finish is long, meaty and somewhat bitter with flavors of sour cherries, ripe red fruits, some old oak spice and a hint of smoky character.
  
  This wine took me by surprise in multiple ways: first of all, I've never been a fan of Brown Brothers's red wine style, often too soft or then acidified too much to come across as awkward and inbalanced. Secondly, I've never been a fan of new world Merlot - and quite little of merlot in general - because all too often Merlot wines are just too simple, soft and fruity for my palate. However, this particular wine managed to avoid all the aforementioned pitfalls and come across as surprisingly balanced, structured and sophisticated red. It shows good freshness and nice, savory character. Me likey.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.