Mount Trio Cabernet Merlot 2007 (Great Southern, WA)
$18, Screwcap, 14%
Source: Sample
www.mounttriowines.com.au

I’ve always admired Gavin Berry’s wines – honest, regional and well priced, with this Cabernet Merlot often a stand out under his own Mount Trio label. Not too sure what happened with this wine then, though I’ve always wondered about getting Cabernet ripe in what is a quite cool and windy part of Australia.

Youthful purple red in the glass, Volatile, slightly minty red fruit nose with plenty of eucalypt (unsurprising considering that blue gum plantations surround the Porongorups) and very ripe fruit.

On the palate it shows some obvious mixed ripeness with both firm sticky-out acidity and tannin, with some rather meaty very ripe fruit overtones a tad raw. Structurally it’s a quite sturdy wine and bound to improve in the cellar, but I’m no fan of the mixed ripeness characters on offer here. 16.0/86+