RED WINE 101

MERLOT

I don’t know about you but I am yet to meet a red wine I don’t like! As a predominantly red wine drinker I’ve noticed a real shift in red wine trends over the years. There seems to be a lot more options for high quality, lower cost cabernet sauvignon, a vast selection of pinot noir, and a growing market of locally made tempranillo.

This rise in more diverse red wine trends is exciting but before I get ahead of myself, I want to go back to basics and break it all down. My hope here is only to enhance your enjoyment of wine, which is, after all, the only wine appreciation that really matters. And if this helps you at your next wine tasting, then bonus points all round!

SHIRAZ

The darkest and heaviest red on the market, shiraz packs a punch of flavour tapering off to a spiced finish. Think peppers, berries, currants, exotic spices and even chocolate. If that’s not enough to tempt you, Shiraz contains high amounts of health invigorating antioxidants.

MY PICK 2017

St Huberts The Stag Victoria Shiraz

RRP $27.00

PINOT NOIR

Pinot noir has a real cult following of wine aficionados – this may be in part to pinot being the oldest and most expensive grape on the market or due to its delicate aromatics, light colour and clean flavours of berry and herb. Top-quality pinot noir is pricey to make and often expensive to buy, but lucky for us our cooler Tasmanian and Victorian climates are the perfect place for pinot grapes to flourish! MY PICK 42 Degrees South Pinot Noir RRP $32 Merlot sits right in the middle of the red wine spectrum. It’s soft and smooth and great for those new to drinking red wine. It’s definitely a wine that deserves more credit than it gets. Think plums, blackberries and occasionally mint and chocolate.

MY PICK

Shottesbrooke Merlot RRP $19.99

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

This is perhaps the world’s most popular red wine. It’s a full bodied, heavy drop, known for its dark fruit flavours like plums, black cherries and currant, and hints of vanilla from ageing in oak.

MY PICK Pepperjack Cabernet Sauvignon RRP $25

TEMPRANILLO

Is Spain’s #1 wine grape. Uno Rioja tinto por favor! Age has a huge impact on the flavours of tempranillo. When young, it can be fruity and on the lighter side, however a reserva (or a wine with more age) becomes oaky, imparting deeper notes of fruit, tobacco and leather. When you think of a tempranillo, you generally think of a Spanish wine but tempranillo is enjoying something of a surge in popularity in Australia. More and more vineyards are planting the grape and winemakers are seeing success in the results.

MY PICK Running With Bulls Tempranillo RRP$23