Who first said that Merlot should taste soft, fruity and generous? It's an oft-repeated opinion, usually trotted out apologetically in conjunction with some mass-market, sub-$15 bottle of wine. On this view, Merlot ends up a bit like that mentally challenged second cousin who turns up to all the family functions and who is at least, you know, nice.
In the mouth, an elegant, controlled experience. Some wines hit the mouth with immediate flavour, or widen at an alarming rate from entry to after palate. This wine, by contrast, enters the mouth firmly and with some flavour, then seems to stay at this level of weight and intensity, moving to the mid palate with a tangible sense of poise and control. There's more fruit on the palate than the nose, in relative terms of course. And what lovely fruit: clean, dark, refreshing. Once one has taken a moment to savour this, the wine has snuck up and begun to really sing through the after palate. Structurally, there's a good acid and tannin support, the latter fine and slightly uneven. The finish takes advantage of a sudden lift in the wine's flavour profile and extends well into the back of the mouth.
This is certainly cerebral, yet it's not some kind of wannabe Cabernet. What a classy wine.
I can never quite understand why Shiraz gets placed above Merlot in the Margaret River varietal heirachy - The finest wines deserve equal billing with Cabernet.
Indeed -- the better Merlots I've tried from Margaret River have been quite exceptional (this one included). I presume it's a fashion thing as much as anything else.