Gioiello Old House Merlot 2021
- 93
- $50
- Drink by: 2025-2033
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The grapes for the Old House Merlot receive the same treatment as the estate version, with eighteen months maturation in French oak barriques. Fans of the grape will surely be excited with this example, already benefiting from several years in the cellar. Dark maroon in colour, the nose exhibits notes of roast meats, dried herbs, Christmas cake, undergrowth, bay leaves, black cherries and plums. There is a little more complexity here than we find in the estate Merlot, as to be expected. A seductively supple texture, there are very fine, sleek tannins and a lingering finish. For drinking over the next six to eight years, this is an impressive wine.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
