2018 Blue Pyrenees Estate Section 5 Merlot

90 POINTS

Ken Gargett - WinePilot.com

Merlot has seen a series of highs and lows over the years, but a few producers have never wavered from the aim of making exceptional wines from the variety. Blue Pyrenees, from the Victorian Pyrenees region, is one. Their Section 5 vineyard produces their top stuff. It was planted back in the early 1970s, on 'quaternary gravels', without irrigation. The wine spent 18 months in a mix of French and American oak. This is a soft, pale red with a nose of dry herbs, warm earth and some of those lovely Christmas cake and plum pudding notes one finds in good examples of this variety. This is a youthful style, though it would probably benefit from drinking in the near term, rather than locking it away in the cellar for too long. It offers an attractive palate, which is reasonably long with some slightly gritty tannins. Drink over the next couple of years. A fine example of Merlot.