Bannockburn "The Estate" Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2004

In an attempt to compensate for the explosively faulty Cotes du Rhone, we opened another bottle last night. This Bannockburn wine is apparently a "Dan Murphy exclusive." Mercifully, no brett was apparent, though this wine isn't in a style that I'd describe as especially "clean."

It does, however, possess a clear, bright line of juicy, grape-like fruit that is evident both on the nose and the palate. It's like a cross between black currant and raspberry and, although it's a little one-dimensional, it's certainly tasty. There are darker, dusty savoury notes that frame the fruit, and these take over towards the end of the palate, with a nice tobacco leaf note edging in just as the mild tannins wind up the wine. Balanced acidity adds a little sourness to the flavour profile, in addition to some brightness to the mouthfeel. It's medium bodied, not especially structured, and a nice drop.

As an aside, before this wine, we finished the bottle of Gulf Station Shiraz Viognier, which had been sitting out (cap on) overnight. It had lost a bit of its freshness, and the viognier was showing itself more, with a slight apricot note and a more floral flavour profile. The wine remained good, though, its "sour fruit" profile intact. Interestingly, it overpowered the rump steak with which we had it. It was too bright, too acidic and light.

Irvine Springhill Merlot 2004

Yay, a delicious and quite sophisticated merlot.

On opening, a bit of a fruit bomb, but it quickly reveals its full spectrum of flavours. A lovely leafy note frames this wine's attractive (if rather simple) red fruit flavours. On the nose, there are intermingled aromas of fruit, leaf and cigar box. Green olives are added to the mix in the mouth, and there's lovely acidity to tingle the edges of the tongue, as well as ripe tannins to dry the finish. It's a medium bodied wine that shows good balance and structure. Its fruit flavours a bit simple and flat, though, and I would not describe this wine as one of great depth or complexity. However, for the $16 I paid, you'd be hard pressed to find a wine of this quality.

Brown Brothers Merlot 2004

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.

Tyrrell's Lost Block Merlot 2006

I'm a bit of a Tyrrell's fan, and my cellar is well stocked with Vat 1s and 9s (amongst others). I also have a few bottles of both vintages (so far) of the 4 Acres Shiraz. As an aside, I shared a bottle of the 2005 earlier this year with some erudite American wine friends and it floored us all, even when tasted alongside many exotic wines from around the world. Such perfume, acidity, elegance and structure. Hunter Shiraz indeed.

The Lost Block Merlot, however, is a rather different proposition. I was at the local bottlo last night, looking for something cheap and cheerful, and out jumped this wine, complete with a "special" tag underneath the row of bottles. So I grabbed it, figuring it would probably be well made at least.

And it is that. I will somewhat sheepishly admit that I guzzled this wine without so much as a second thought, and the wine participated willingly in my endeavour. Only towards the end of the (ostensibly shared) bottle did I tire of the wine's rather confected, overly intense mid and back palate sweetness. Otherwise, it's not a bad quaffer. It has some nice black olive and tobacco notes, and enough acidity to prop the wine up and prevent it from feeling completely flabby. But there's not a hell of a lot of structure here, nor is there much balance, the wine tipped as it is so far into the sweet fruit spectrum at the expense of almost everything else. I don't know if there's a whack of residual sugar here or whether it's just the fruit -- either way, it does become cloying after a couple of glasses, and you'd want to be eating something that balanced this out (pizza perhaps). I had it with a chicken dish that contained tomato and silverbeet but perhaps not enough strength of flavour, acidity and weight to keep the wine under control.

When next selecting a cheap quaffing red, I will probably not revisit this wine. A couple of wines tasted recently, the Mount Pleasant Phillip 2003 and the Wirra Wirra Scrubby Rise Red 2006, were both much more satisfying cheapies.