Reserve Merriman Cabernet Sauvignon

NSW Wine Awards 2021

NSW Wine Awards 2021

Cairns Show Wine Awards 2021

Vienna International Wine Show 2022

James Halliday Cabernet Challenge 2022

Decanter World Wine Awards 2022

This is their best of the best range and, after six years of ageing, it's drinking really well. It's smooth and silky with blackcurrant, aniseed and blueberry flavours, and a hint of graphite. There's a good carry of flavour, long and easy, with a pinch of spice on the finish. Tannins are chalky and fine, and oak is very much in sync. It's lovely.

An impressively deep nose of Christmas spices and red/black fruits. Very well defined, rich blackcurrant and bramble on the palate, this is a delightful and precisely balanced wine. Silver Medal.

Many people are unaware that Canberra produces some fine Cabernet. At an elevation of around 640 metres, the estate has a few sites with perfect microclimates for this variety. The best fruit goes into this Reserve wine that has won a string of awards, most recently the trophy for Best Cabernet Sauvignon at the NSW Wine Awards. An earlier vintage was named Best Australian Cabernet Sauvignon at the International Wine Challenge in London. An exquisite wine with delicate blueberry and chocolate notes, it has hints of mint and subtle French oak.

BEST BUY WINES OVER $35. Graeme Shaw is the driving force behind this family enterprise with 30ha under vine and 1,800 sheep grazing on the historic Murrumbateman property. The style is pristine and pure with this a wine of great detail and finesse. Classic blueberry and cassis perfumes greet the nose with hints of mocha chocolate and bay-leaf. Taut and fine-boned, the palate opens up with air to reveal an abundance of blue and black fruits. Sinewy tannins frame the finish. Roast beef, please.

Elegant and classic Cabernet, delivering a combination of blackcurrant leaf, cool mint, wet earth and fresh cassis on powdery-fine tannins. 93 Points.

Dark and inky in the glass, really youthful in appearance. Aromas are dark-fruited, mulberry, blackberry, cedar, tobacco and iodine, really deep, dark and alluring. The palate has freshness and brightness, lashings of blackberry, black cherry, blackcurrant and brambles. The tannins are firm, but generous, and give shape and savouriness and the acidity has crunch and a snappiness to it that keeps everything fresh. 95/100 Points

An explosion of flavours from mint and blackberries, currants and menthol with lashings of oak in the mix. There's a vibrancy and juiciness across the full-bodied plate, with griitty yet shapely tannins and while a tad firm, it has appeal. Built to be better in a few years. 92/100 Points.

Merriman is exactly what you will be if you have one of these in your cellar (and you're a bloke). Sophisticated and suave stuff. 9.5/10 Points.