The quest for cheap, good red quaffers continues.
I've never drunk huge amounts of merlot before embarking on my value red quest, and the thing that's interesting about merlot, especially at this end of the market, is the enormous variability in style. You get everything from overly-sweet fruit bombs with no structure to characterless "dry red" wines to more structured attempts at elegance and mid-weight.
This Brown Brothers wine is of medium weight, with attractive red fruit framed by very slightly savoury edges. It's not overly structured, although acidity and tannins do a good enough job of framing and supporting the wine's line, and there are no undue peaks or troughs in the wine's flow from front to back palate. The overall impression of this wine, though, is one of dilution, lacking as it does in any real intensity of flavour. This means that, whilst it was an inoffensive partner to the pork chops we had last night, it didn't really add or detract in any way. It is, however, a sound wine and is well balanced. Its flavours are pretty and moreish, and the wine presents as totally dry, without any hint of confected fruit flavour. I just wish there had been more to it.
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