While almost all Australian Merlot in the bottle is made from one clone, now Australia has better French clones of Merlot. This wine is made from one of them (Q45) by Australias new clone Merlot pioneers. MÉRITEs 2016 Q Merlot is made to showcase the attributes of this new clone: its a bold wine with intense fruit flavours, bright natural acidity and fine tannins

Te Kahu is a wine of richness, with lovely black fruit flavours, hints of spice and long, fine graceful finish. From gravelly soil, it is made very much in the image of good Bordeaux.

This limited release Merlot is produced from a 5 star Halliday rated winery, Parker Coonawarra Estate. The wine reflect the stylistic approach to creating beautiful wines from the rich terra rossa soils of the Coonawarra region. The Merlot combines dark cherries and plums, dusted with a hint of tobacco. This wine is savoury and lush with persistence and a fine, silky finish.

A rich wine with a soft creamy texture, just the way a traditional Aussie sparkling red should be. Drink it now while it still has plenty of bubbles. Try it with roast turkey or any game meat or even with fruit cake and raisins.

The 2008 release of this took out the prestigious tri-nations award. The 2009 from a stronger vintage looks even better. A classicist?s Merlot; plum and cassis supported by fine tannin.

Jean-Marc Sauboua was born and raised in the heart of Grand Cru Bordeaux and has a book filled with useful contacts. He’s a winemaker too (trained at Château Haut Brion) as well as a top Bordeaux Buyer, hence both the great quality and value of this juicy claret. Not only that, 2017 was a year where yields were down 40%. Jean-Marc tasted his way through a few dozen vats of wine to pick out the best. He then helped the winemaker put a blend together that had just the right balance of forward ripe fruit and silky tannins to make this a great value early drinker. Decant

Wine is a vibrant dark plum red colour with brick brown hues.On the nose a subtle white pepper and spicy berry fruit bouquet is rich and dominant. On the palate the lifted aromas follow through and complement the balanced structure of fine tannins, ripe berry flavours and a lean elegant finish. The fruit flavours fill the full length of the palate. This medium to full bodied wine will cellar for at least 8 years under the right conditions and combines beautifully with lamb, mild curry dishes or our favourite, Osso Bucco.