Fire Gully Cabernet Merlot 2023 - from $29.99 a bottle

In their words -  This, the current Fire Gully Cab Merlot, is showing some restraint on the nose with gently perfumed red berry aromatics.

A palate that has ripe plum and blackcurrant flavours. It's medium to full-bodied, a touch denser than the previous vintage, and so showing more weight, good structure, and gentle grip on the finish.

A combination of open and closed fermenters is used to alow the wine six days on skins post-fermentation before transferring it into oak where it undergoes the malolactic fermentation. To enhance the wine's primary fruit flavours it is matured for about nine months in a majority of mature (rather than new) barriques. Blending Cabernet Sauvignon (66%). Merlot (28%) and Cabernet Franc (6%) gives the wine backhone and tightness of structure while emphasizing its smooth, soft texture and fragrance.