2012 Whalebone Vineyard Merlot / Merlot Cabernet Franc

A 66/34% blend, matured for 21 months in French oak (70%new). Still has excellent crimson-purple colour; spent close on 3 years making its way into bottle, an especially long time for a blend such as this, but it clearly needed

“This excellent red has little of the minty signature of the region, but is more a matter of violets, earth, forest-floor and dried flowers. There’s a trace of Vegemite, possibly from oak and/or lees contact.
In the mouth, it’s full-bodied

This is a super wine based on the Right Bank Bordeaux blend. Silky smooth and so elegantly structured, it features a lovely balance of fruit and fine-grained oak, with superb fine tannins. Nice touch of cedar on the nose. Will

Bright colour. Delicious blackberry, cedar and black pepper fruit – plus prominent oak. Dry and full bodied blackberry, plum compote, mint chocolate flavours with excellent concentration and length with plenty of tannins. Lovely now but with structure to age.

93

Wines like this don’t come our way very often. Not only is it complex and fragrant, showing red fruits and dusty tobacco leaf aromas, it wraps its compelling flavours in the finest of tannins. Definitely one of the wines of

Merlot and cabernet franc from 1974 plantings. 66/34 blend. Worthy of a spot in the jewellery drawer of Australian wine – you could argue.
This is a swashbuckler.

Tannic, herbal, chocolatey, rich, elegant and more. Warm too, pushing it, no

Still has excellent crimson-purple colour; has spent close on 3 years making its way into bottle, an especially long time for a blend such as this, but it clearly needed it; there is a complex interplay between cedar, cigar box,