Moss Wood Ribbon Vale Merlot 2019
- 91
- $72
- Drink by: 2023 - 2030
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Merlot may not have the overwhelming popularity it did some years ago but it still has many fans. This one was handpicked into small, open fermenters, hand-plunged three times a day before ten days on skins. Then to closed fermenters and pumped over thrice daily. Multiple yeasts were used before racking to French oak barriques for 28 months, 14% new. There is a dollop – 7% – Cabernet Franc. Purples and reds here, with a nose of a chalk sitting under plums, fruitcake, blueberries and mulberries. It still seems a touch raw, but it is heading in the right direction with good tannins and juicy acidity. This is a wine with a solid future and indeed, it would be all the better after a year or two in the cellar. A good example of Margaret River Merlot.
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.
