Mt. Bera Wild and Free Cabernet Merlot 2023
- 93
- $35
- Drink by: 2025-2035
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Just 450 cases made of this most appealing Cab Merlot blend from the Adelaide Hills. Fermentation was in French oak barrels, before maturation for a year and a half in French oak barriques, 20% of them new. Dark maroon/red in colour, we have notes of cigar boxes and tobacco leaves, with blackberries, dried herbs, espresso, licorice and chocolate. Quite a powerful undertow, not immediately apparent at first. Moving to the palate, there is a little more finesse here. A refined style, well balanced, with very good length, silky tannins and bright acidity. Early days but this should drink beautifully for the next decade.
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.
