How often is it that we get to taste merlot that’s had a decent stretch of time inside the bottle. Time enough for all that nervous teenage fruit and spice to actually settle into a calm kind of companionship. All edges and elbows have smoothed over, all that youthful hot air is now a warm cuddle and it’s beginning to morph into delicious, earthy, savoury flavours, think soy, black olive, smoke and iodine. Slow-cooked, sticky beef cheeks are a must.
