Shaw Wines Merriman Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

Righto, now you can knock me over with a feather. I have my nose in a nice sized glass of Shaw’s Reserve 2018 Merriman Cabernet Sauvignon and I’m seeing all of the good things I love about the variety. Yep, I know cabernet is a bit out of fashion so call me behind the times, but seriously, some of the greatest wines in the world come from this variety so get with the program people and get back to cabernet.

The wine experts would be pointing to shiraz as our district’s hero variety but I can attest to the quality of our cabernet when the season is warm and extended. The variety can make very high quality wines indeed.

Shaw’s is the perfect example. The French call it cassis, we might call it Ribena, but it’s there in abundance in the aromas of the Shaw Cab. Blackcurrant, it’s the tell-tale varietal characteristic, along with the edgy herbal notes, also present in this wine.

Somehow it’s also soaked up 22months in French oak perfectly. So yes, it’s a big full-bodied, ripe cabernet with gorgeous integration of oak and time in barrel. Funnily enough, even though this is a wine of high class, I’d just have it with a simple spaghetti Bolognaise. Both, perfectly satisfying.

Fergus McGhie

A native Canberran, Fergus is a wine fanatic who happily works in one of Australia’s finest small vineyards right in his own back yard. His fine dining restaurant training proved more useful and nearly more interesting than an arts degree at the ANU and a love of wine followed. Vintages as a cellar hand removed the mystique but didn’t quell the love. As a wine retailer, Fergus learned there is always another great wine around the corner and as a wine writer for The Canberra Times he learned that the stories behind the wines make them taste better. An occasional show judge and snowboarder, he has a guilty love of simple, uncomplicated wine, craft beers and a well-made Negroni.