The Big Easy: Australasia’s Top 50 merlots
Merlot is the big easy of winemaking.
Its onomatopoeic name almost gives it away. Its soft vowels and simple syllables convey exactly the grape’s plush fruit and silky tannins. It ripens early, fits hand-in-glove with cabernet varieties and doesn’t need much time in the bottle.
Except it’s not. Australia’s scorching summers and poor soils mean merlot has mostly struggled here. It hates too much heat yet loathes wet feet. The grape also strains patience in the winery. Finding the balance between coaxing out merlot’s delicate tannins and over-extracting the grapes can test the most skilled winemaker.
As a result merlot finds itself mostly relegated to small pockets of hospitable terroir scattered around the Limestone Coast and Central Victoria.
Strangely, the one place where you’d expect the grape to do well in Australia barely features among local wine show exhibits. South-West Australia produces Australia’s most reliable cabernet merlot blends by far. But none of the top 20 varietal wines in our list published below hail from the area. Either the blend’s success is all about Margaret River’s famed cabernet sauvignon or the merlot is too precious to bottle by itself.
The best place to find an Antipodean merlot is in New Zealand. That country’s more temperate climate suits the grape perfectly. The ideal region appears to be the golden slopes of the North Island’s Hawkes Bay. The region’s long, sunny days are moderated by summer easterlies that give merlot enough light but without Australia’s harsher temperatures.
These regional sensitivities are illustrated vividly in the Australasian wine show ratings. Australian merlots fare poorly at most local shows with some failing to award a gold to any exhibit in this class. Overall merlot’s gold strike rate is just half that of Australia’s top red class, shiraz, at just four per cent. That’s 33 per cent below the average gold strike rate for all grapes.
Kiwis merlots, on the other hand, do exceptionally well. They claim three of our Top 10 which is extraordinary given the handicap they bear in our ranking system. All three wines have considerably higher average raw scores than their Aussie counterparts but get marked down for the smaller and fewer shows they attend across the Ditch.
All that said, Australian merlot is said to be improving. Vineyard yields are improving strongly as relatively young vines come of age and winemakers become more adept at managing the grape’s fickle behaviour. Here’s our list of the Top 50 Australasian merlots as judged by Australian and New Zealand wine shows last year:
| 1 | Blue Pyrenees Estate Merlot 2013 |
| 2 | Jamiesons Run Merlot 2015 |
| 3 | Villa Maria Single Vineyard Braided Gravels Organic Merlot 2013 |
| 4 | Church Road McDonald Series Merlot 2013 |
| 5 | Taylors Merlot 2015 |
| 6 | Villa Maria Private Bin Hawkes Bay Merlot 2015 |
| 7 | Smith & Hooper Merlot 2014 |
| 8 | Saint Clair Pioneer Block 17 Plateau Merlot 2015 |
| 9 | Aldi Stores Claire Creek Merlot 2015 |
| 10 | Four Sisters Merlot 2014 |
| 11 | Mills Reef Reserve Merlot 2014 |
| 12 | Warburn Estate 1164 Merlot 2014 |
| 13 | Capercaillie Wines Merlot 2014 |
| 14 | Leconfield Merlot 2015 |
| 15 | Leconfield Merlot 2014 |
| 16 | Berrigan Merlot 2015 |
| 17 | Rosemount Diamond Label Merlot 2014 |
| 18 | Nannup Ridge Rolling Hills Merlot 2014 |
| 19 | Matua Single Vineyard Hawkes Bay Merlot 2013 |
| 20 | Bird In Hand Nest Egg Merlot 2013 |
| 21 | Brancott Estate Hawkes Bay Merlot 2015 |
| 22 | Robert Oatley Wines Wild Oats Mudgee Merlot 2014 |
| 23 | Villa Maria Reserve Gimblett Gravels Hawkes Bay Merlot 2013 |
| 24 | Vinpro Wines Flinders Bay Merlot 2015 |
| 25 | Sileni Estate Selection Triangle Merlot 2014 |
| 25 | Delegat Crownthorpe Terraces Merlot 2015 |
| 27 | Villa Maria Reserve Gimblett Gravels Hawkes Bay Merlot 2014 |
| 28 | Trentham Estate Merlot 2015 |
| 29 | Montana Winemakers Series Hawke’s Bay Merlot 2015 |
| 30 | Bird In Hand Merlot 2013 |
| 31 | Sileni Estate Selection Cut Cane Merlot 2014 |
| 32 | Pepper Tree 8R Single Vineyard Wrattonbully Merlot 2013 |
| 33 | Mike Press Adelaide Hills Merlot 2015 |
| 34 | St Anne’s Merlot 2015 |
| 35 | Moppity Vineyards Estate Merlot 2014 |
| 36 | Brown Brothers 18 Eighty Nine Merlot 2014 |
| 37 | Norfolk Rise Vineyard Merlot 2015 |
| 38 | Beresford Bell Tower Merlot 2015 |
| 39 | Villa Maria Cellar Selection Hawkes Bay Organic Merlot 2014 |
| 40 | Penny?s Hill Malpas Road Merlot 2014 |
| 41 | Squawking Magpie The Nest Merlot 2013 |
| 42 | Banks Thargo Wines Merlot 2013 |
| 43 | Warburn Estate Premium Reserve Merlot 2014 |
| 44 | Happs Winery Three Hills Merlot 2015 |
| 45 | Kingston Estate Merlot 2014 |
| 46 | Talisman Merlot 2014 |
| 47 | Majella Merlot 2014 |
| 48 | Flame Hill Vineyard Traprock Merlot 2014 |
| 48 | Ironwood Estate Wines Merlot 2014 |
| 50 | Credaro Estate Beach Head Merlot 2014 |