Fun,
fun, fun till your daddy takes the Merlot away
2007
Panorama Wines Merlot
07 Panorama Wines
Merlot
Of course the Beach Boys were singing about an American
muscle car rather than a merlot. This is because nearly every muscle
car is fun ... well as long as you stay in a straight line. Maybe the
song should have been 'Fun, fun, fun till you try to take a corner at
speed'. Poor handling aside, at least people have sung about cars. Why
not about merlot?
Merlot has a reputation as a serious drink. That's because
it's mostly consumed by people who like to frown and go 'hmmmm' a lot.
The sort of people who are always nodding at you in a way that says "I
know something you never will". You know, popular people like
Actuaries, Quantity Surveyors and Art Critics.
Just like 'actually talented' and 'winner of Australia's Got
Talent' the words fun and merlot are almost never used in the same
sentence. The only one we could think of was 'this would be fun if it
wasn't a merlot'!
But Michael and Sharon Vishacki from Panorama Wines have
gone and ruined this wine industry truism. Their 2007 Merlot is a big
fat bottle of fun that rewrites the merlot handbook. You can imagine
our surprise when we were introduced to it.
"That's really good, not like the usual merlot at all" we
spluttered.
"I know!" punter Annie cried enthusiastically as she poured
us some more.
How else do you react to a wine that delivers intense and
jammy fruity flavours without that slightly sour merlot after taste? A
wine that combines a hint of sweetness in the highlight with a bone dry
finish?
07 Panorama Wines
Merlot backlabel
So what to do with this wine? Well if it were a jam you'd
sit in front of the cupboard and eat it straight from the jar with your
fingers while grinning like a loon. But it's not so our advice is to go
buy some, put on the Beach Boy records, turn the volume up to 11 and
toast those fine folk at Panorama.
You can order it for $29 per bottle from their website or
find it, sometimes even cheaper, in many of the major retailers.
A
civilised guest not a backpacker!
2010 Puddleduck
Vineyard Rose
Like all good Rose this wine is made from grapes grown for
that purpose, not left over juice as is the case all too often in the
cheaper versions.
10 Puddleduck
Vineyard Rose
So what you get is a proper wine. It has a proper smell
albeit a scaled down pinot one. It has a proper taste that improved
the longer the bottle was open. We left it open for two days between
tastings and the increase in intensity was staggering. We'd almost go
as
far as to suggest that this is the way to get the most out of it but
you're probably going to buy this wine to take to a BBQ, which isn't a
bad idea by the way.
Finally it has a proper finish. By proper we mean it does
what a finish should. Firstly it's dry, really, really dry. As dry as
an Elliot Goblet joke. But it also lingers in a good way, rather like
a civilised party guest that leaves just before you get sick of them
rather than that Pommie back packer your daughter likes who's been
sleeping on the couch for 6 months.
10 Puddleduck
Vineyard Rose
These two wines would actually go well one after the other.
Maybe start with the Rose for lunch and then move on to the Merlot as
the afternoon progresses. There's Saturday sorted. All you need now is
a
couple of Sunday wines.
Something for us to think about ....
What do you think? What's the perfect Sunday wine?.