November 23, 2023 - Boy is this good. Perfect bouquet, nose, finish. Welcome relief after drinking New Zealand wines for 12 days. This is the best wine I’ve had in New Zealand by far.
November 11, 2023 - From magnum. Opulent and decadent with fine, sweet tannins and no alcohol burn. Held back by a candied note, but WOTN by general consensus. A hedonistic delight.
February 27, 2022 - Drinking at peak. Fine grained tannin, fully integrated. In excellent balance.
Lovely fruit still present. Wonderful
January 15, 2021 - Cork pulled ok, but later on proved brittle. Deep purple, almost black stained. Very little bouquet upon opening, poured through Vinturi. Nice body, and took most of the day for the fruit to emerge. Nice wine that has not waned and retained it's power. Had some been left for the next day, the fruit most likely would have further emerged. Really decent place now, nice complexity. I myself would drink now, but as the wine did take a good deal to emerge, probably can age a bit longer, but why toe the line and run risk of being past peak? Try now.
September 14, 2019 - This showed quite a bit better than my last bottle 5 years ago. This is starting to mellow, although the tannins are still quite evident. On day 2, the structure softened and the plump, plush, cassis fruit came forward. Very enjoyable, but if I was to nit pick, the fruit was a bit sweeter/candied than I would like.
March 15, 2018 - Really deep, fruit forward and bold baby, it could have gone several more years but tonight was the perfect time to have this precious juice!
We had 4 other top wines and it stand up to the test. Decanted for 2 hours and drank over another 3.
March 12, 2018 - I love Merus wines. The smell is terrific. The wine has stayed over several hours in the candied fruit category. Just a bit too cloying. Oak is almost non-existent (and I have grown to dislike overoaked Cabs). It seems to be lacking fresh fruit flavors. I still enjoy it to an extent, but can't say I am close to wowed. I opened a 2006 Stryker Two Moon Cab to compare before we had dinner. The Stryker had better structure and tannins. Maybe this is in a dumb phase for the wine but can't say that it makes me excited for the bottles I still have. Maybe waited too long. Confusing wine.
March 11, 2017 - Brought and tasted blind with Dwale.
Huge fruit, lovely lush but lacks delineation.
January 13, 2017 - only able to decant for 1hr but this was amazing. still age left. full nose, big full fruit. really great if you're looking for a huge cali cab. big fan
October 5, 2016 - Pnp and drank 2nd half of bottle next day. Both tastings were delicious. Big, dense and so smooth fruit. Drinking great now!