Taylors Limestone Coast Clare Valley Merlot 2020

The question here is, what do we expect from a $22 merlot? The answer has to be, fruit, fruit, fruit. Merlot is generally not shy when it comes to gorgeous, unbridled, arresting, aromatic fruits and spices: rose, violet, musk, raspberry, mulberry, plum, et. al.
Trouble is, winemakers sometimes try too hard to make a lot more of those features and often fail, filling merlot up with oak and playing with tannin and acidity to introduce more structure. Here, the less is more credo applies.

The maker lets the fruit have its way and it’s all the better for it. It’s super appealing in brilliant purple. Fresh as a button with aromas of mulberry, cherry, leafiness and florals to the fore. Smooth on the palate with plenty of ripe plummy-ness and generous spice throughout. Oak to the background. Not a heavy wine and gets the merlot weight just right.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic