If you are looking for a red wine that is a one-trick pony, don’t come knocking on the door of South African Merlot. The second Hallo Merlot Top 10 competition, this year sponsored by esteemed French cooperage Taransaud, attracted 69 entries from most of the Cape’s wine regions. And in their quest to find the 20 finalists ahead of the Top 10 announcement on 21 June, judges were unanimous that this year’s entries provided a more dynamic spread of Merlot offerings than in the previous competition.
Matthew Copeland, winemaker at Vondeling Wines and convener of the judging panel, said this year’s entries were a tad more exciting than the wines entered in last year’s maiden Merlot Top 10, with there this year being excellent examples of each style.
“Generally, it felt clear to me that winemakers had a better idea of what they were trying to achieve and had a gentler approach in the cellar,” says Copeland. “The powerful wines were a result of good fruit as opposed to aggressive cellar practices. There were fewer examples of over-extracted wines and wooding was generally more subtle.”
Copeland said high alcohols were not an issue. “Here and there we found a bit of Christmas pudding and dried out tannin, but they were overruled by wines oozing vibrancy and bright fruit.”
However, there were some hints of subtle Brettanomyces causing flabby wines. “This was more apparent in higher alcohol wines, and the panel expressed concern that some of the fruit may have been from virus-stressed vines,” says Copeland.
Wine critic and journalist Malu Lambert said it was clear that attentive canopy management was on the up-tick as very few wines showed green notes.
“The wines that did best heroed merlot’s red fruit and innate sense of luxury, without being overdone,” she says. “There were some wines with higher alcohols, which dulled the fruit and enhanced sweet oak flavours, which then pushed the wine into charry-mocha-choc territory.
“I presume that higher alcohols came from fruit that spent longer on the vine in a bid to avoid those infamous ‘green’ flavours. However, picking times are crucial to mitigate this as overripe fruit also has the effect of obscuring site. Where alcohol levels were judiciously managed the fruit shone, with oak only playing a supporting role. In general there was a sense of South African Merlot coming into its own: wines with generous – though pure – fruit with refreshing structures and velvety, layered tannins came together to show the noble grape’s pedigree.”
Cathy van Zyl MW, echoed Copeland in stating that this year’s Merlot line-up showed a variety of styles without any one style dominating. “On the one hand were wines which could be described as big and powerful, with what felt like higher alcohols, greater extraction and more new oak,” she says. “On the other there were those which felt less ‘worked’, offering a sense of greater freshness. There were also earlier drinking Merlots focussing on fruit and immediate appeal, as well as those tending towards the ‘herbal’ or ‘green’.
“When judging, I always try to keep in mind something Bruce Jack once wrote in response to an outburst against high alcohols. He said that as long as all the elements of the wine were in balance, no wine should be dismissed for having a higher alcohol than its peers. This statement stood me in good stead for this year’s judging. I did find, obviously, wines with higher alcohols, wines with greater reliance on new oak, wines with green notes, wines with very sweet fruit. But I also found ‘balance’ and that is what I looked to reward.”
The other judges were Ladybird Vineyards winemaker Francois van Zyl and consultant Raymond Noppé, Cape Wine Master.
The winners of the Taransaud Hallo Merlot Top 10 Competition will be announced at Vondeling Wines on 21 June.
The 20 finalists are:
Bein Merlot 2020
Carmen Stevens Merlot 2021
De Grendel Merlot 2019
Die Laan Merlot Reserve 2020
Doolhof Single Vineyard Merlot 2018
Durbanville Hills Collectors Reserve The Lighthouse Merlot 2021
Fleur du Cap Merlot 2021
Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Merlot 2019
Groot Constantia Merlot 2020
Holden Manz Merlot Reserve 2019
La Bri Merlot 2020
Le Bonheur Merlot 2021
Nabygelegen Merlot 2022
Nilberg Merlot 2018
Nilberg Merlot Reserve 2018
Plaisir Merlot 2019
Rainbow’s End Merlot 2020
Ridgeback Merlot 2020
Vondeling Barrel Selection Merlot 2020
Zorgvliet Merlot 2020
