Deep brooding fruit crushed into dense, perfumed grape juice. Abundant blue and red fruits tempered by classic cool climate tannin structure. Powerful enough to cope with venison; rounded enough to compliment tomato based pastas

Impressive colour and bouquet with a distinct bramble aroma and perhaps wild rose; the palate lifts the wine another notch higher, blackcurrant fruit, powerful but balanced tannins, and quality oak all in play. An Australian merlot that a Left Bank producer in Bordeaux would instantly relate to, sweet plum fruit nowhere in the profile. Drink: to 2025; Price: $30.00; Alcohol: 13.5%; Rating: 96 Points; James Halliday Wine Companion

An elegant, seamless red with red and dark berry, Oriental spice/star anise and subtle floral flavours. A peacock’s tail of layered flavours is displayed on the finish. Subtle power and extraordinary length with a great mouthfeel and silken texture. It’s a restrained, elegant wine with great potential. Sophia has long ranked as one of my favourite NZ blended reds. 97 Points and 5 Stars, Bob Campbell MW for Gourmet Traveller Wine 2010

The 2008 Sophia is initially very closed on the nose with reluctant aromas of bilberry, black plum and a touch of cassis, later offering black olive and a hint of melted tar. The palate is underpinned by a firm tannic backbone, quite broody and uncompromising at first but delivering a scintillating, saline finish with crisp blackberry and boysenberry with great minerality." - 94 Points, Neal Martin for Robert Parker's THe Wine Advocate, 2010

Brilliant deep ruby red in colour, the nose was tightly bound but beautifully aromatic with plush, sleek dark plum and savoury red fruits along with a new oak lift. On palate, the wine was still restrained, needing to open up, but clearly showing lovely sweet, ripe flavours of red and dark plums, red flowers, all within a fine-grained, tightly packed structure. Excellent fresh acidity added to the vibrancy. A wine that will develop silken textures with fragrance and cedar over the next 12-15 years.” - 18.5 Points, Raymond Chan, 2010

Bold and youthful in colour, it is highly fragrant, with blackcurrant, spice and coffee aromas. Mouthfilling and dense, yet supple, it is richly flavoured, with fine-grained tannins, and lovely texture and richness. Drink now or cellar. 5 Stars * * * * * Michael Cooper

Sophia means ‘wisdom’. It is the collective wisdom of those charged with its creation now and that of previous generations passed on, that makes this wine we call “Sophia” so special. Produced entirely from our Gimblett Gravels Vineyard nestled on the right bank of the Ngaruroro River, it is a blend of the very best Merlot and Cabernet Franc parcels of the vineyard. Always classy,  always evocative and always richly textured.

This Merlot dominant wine is compelling and convincing with glorious richness and power while remaining elegant and perfectly poised. The nose is superbly ripe and complex, displaying dark plum, spice, cocoa and vanillin oak characters. It’s exuberant and seductive at the same time, with velvety texture and outstanding mid palate weight leading to a gloriously long finish. The wine is supple, fleshy and immensely appealing already, although a few more years will bring out even more complex delicious flavours. Sam Kim; 97 Points, 5 Stars

Very dark, near impenetrable, purple-hued, ruby red in colour, this has a full, intense and concentrated nose of dark plum and spicy berry fruits, beautifully layered with aromas of earth and truffles, and notes of lavender perfumes and lifted oak.  Rich and concentrated, this is nearly massive in its density and body, the fruit flavours filling the palate, showing succulent dark plums, liquorice as well as pepper, soy sauce and Oriental spices.  The extraction is serious, and provides a powerful structure, yet the tannins are fine and powdery.  The wine features incredible tension and freshness from the acidity, and the palate has great length.  The balance of the wine offers remarkable accessibility, but this will develop greater interest and complexity over the next 10-15+ years. 20 Points, 5 Stars; Raymond Chan

Medium deep colour. Lovely fragrant plum/violet/praline aromas with touches of cedar/spice. Deep set buoyant wine with plum/dark chocolate flavours, velvety tannins and cedar oak. Very smooth and seductive wine. Power and elegance. One for the long haul. 19 Points; Andrew Caillard MW

Big, ripe plum flavours with toasty oak and hints of spice, blackcurrant and florals on the finish. Seamless and rich. Approachable with soft, ripe tannins and plenty of fleshy fruit but should age. 94 Points, 5 Stars; Bob Campbell

Delicious rich, ripe and smooth in its youth, this Gimblett Gravels blend of merlot (65%) and cabernet sauvignon (25%) also has splashes of cabernet franc (7%) and petit verdot (3%).   Matured for 18 months in French oak barriques (45% new), it is deeply coloured, full-bodied, sweet-fruited and supple, with highly concentrated, ripe cassis, plum and spice flavours. 5 Stars; Michael Cooper; Winestate

Leconfield Wines is proudly celebrating a Trophy win on the eagerly awaited release of the 2010 Merlot. The 2010 vintage has been awarded Tattersall's Wine Club Trophy for Best Merlot in Class, at the 2011 Royal Brisbane Wine Show. The award marks another strong release for Leconfield, taking its tally to over 100 medals in the past decade. Leconfield is situated in the heart of Australia's famous Coonawarra with its rich Terra Rossa soil over limestone. Fruit for this wine was sourced from their Estate Grown vineyards, with the character of the region expressed in the wine.

Paul Gordon, Senior Winemaker at Leconfield Wines since December 2001 is delighted with the result. “We have been focusing on producing outstanding Merlots from our Estate grown vineyards for many years and this result further cements the enviable reputation that we have achieved. It is further evidence that Coonawarra is the pre-eminent region for Merlot in Australia”, Gordon says.

The 2010 Leconfield Merlot presents a medium bodied palate characterised by excellent persistence and soft acidity, crafted to allow for sufficient elegance and softness to make it appeal in its youth, for which Coonawarra has been traditionally famous.

Trophy - Royal Brisbane Wine Show 2011
Gold - Royal Brisbane Wine Show 2011

This classic variety of Bordeaux grows so well in the cool climate of Adelaide Hills a climate which is quite similar to Bordeaux. This Merlot has great depth of colour with purple and red tints. On the nose you see the classic plummy fruit character subtly enhanced with new oak. The palate is tight, but rounded with some acid and powdery tannins. All these combine to give the wine the classic merlot stamp and longevity in the bottle.

If you love merlot because it's soft, fleshy and devoid of any kind of expressive personality, read no further, this wine is not for you. This is real merlot, structured, grippy and screaming out for a decade in the cellar. Don't be too concerned, though, because when it does emerge it will be a stunner, with a pretty violet perfume, elegant berry fruits and very finely textured tannins. 14.0%, RRP $14; 91 points; Tyson Stelzer

Picardy Merlot/Cabernet is a blend of approximately 40% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a wine in the style of the Merlot dominant St Emilion/Pomerol region - fruity but elegant and with excellent structure which will reward cellaring. The outstanding features of this wine are its structure, fine grained tannins, low pH without high acidity, excellent colour and pronounced fruit flavours. It should drink superbly for up to twenty years.

The vineyard is planted to 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Cabernet Franc. However, the final wine's composition may not reflect these percentages because climate can create ripening problems for Cabernet Sauvignon in cooler seasons. The vines carry a maximum of 8 tonnes per hectare and excess fruit is hand thinned at veraison. To help keep crop levels down the vineyard is non-irrigated and cane pruned. In the future there may be some Malbec added to create further complexity. The fruit is ripened to around 13.5° baume, depending on flavour. It is then hand picked and transported to the winery (only 400m away), on the Picardy estate.

After blending the wine is then settled for up to one week and then matured in new to four year old French oak barriques. While in oak the wine undergoes malo-lactic fermentation and each barrel is checked and topped up fortnightly to prevent oxidation in the headspace. This prevents formation of volatile acidity and is facilitated by all the barrels being at floor level, not stacked. If required the wine may be racked during its oak maturation. After twelve months in oak the wine is racked out of barrel to a tank and then given a light filtration on its way to bottle.

Most Australian cabernet blends salute the firm, cabernet-dominant styles of Bordeaux’s Medoc sub-region. But this merlot-led blend looks more to Saint-Emilion, another major Bordeaux sub-region, for inspiration. It’s fragrant – courtesy of the merlot and cabernet franc – and medium bodied with a juicy, plump kernel of fruit, elegant structure and fine tannins holding it all together. It’s made by Dan Pannell from estate-grown fruit and probably best within five years of vintage. Chris Shanahan