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Viticultural & vinification notes		Winemakers comments
Vintage conditions	Warm temperatures throughout the summer and during ripening resulted in an early harvest.	Colour Nose Palate	Red with a red hue   Lifted black jubes, cassis and tomato leaf with a touch of eucolypt and red fruit.   A full bodied, dry wine with moderate acidity. The wine has good fruit intensity and displays dark fruit, mocha, red current and choc mint with a hint of beetroot. The tannins are powerful for Merlot and provide a very good structure that is not always seen in this variety. The wine has great length, finishing with a black jubes after taste and fine powdery tannins.
Vineyard	Three Hills Karridale Hand pruned to rods Hand picked
Grape variety	87.5% Merlot 12.5% Cabernet Franc
Maturation	12 months in French oak barriques and 1 year minimum in bottle prior to release where maturation is conducted under screw cap.
Wine analysis	Alc/Vol:           14.2% Acidity:              6.3g/l pH:                     3.66 Residual Sugar:<0.5g/l

There are very few outstanding Merlots in Australia. The wine press regularly tastes them and asks what it is all about. The conventional wisdom is that Merlot is useful variety to be used in small proportion to soften Cabernet. The conundrum is that in most cases Merlot is more tannic than Cabernet and tasted alone, too often shows a firm finish from green flavoured methoxypyrazines that smell like capsicum. It is the ideal marriage of climate, soil and variety that is required. The presence of methoxypyrazine relates directly to leaf condition at harvest which in turn relates to irrigation and soil moisture. When I visited Petrus in 1985, the day after harvest, there was not a green leaf to be seen. Fully senescent vines produce ripe tannins. Green leaves on red vines at harvest are a reliable indicator of the presence of harsh green flavours. So, the phenomenon of ‘green flavour’ and ‘under-ripe tannins’, is actually a viticultural problem. To get a good vintage in Bordeaux a dry finish to a dry season is mandatory.  The valley flats are hopeless. The deep gravels, plateaux limestones and repellent clays are the best soil types because they limit the vines access to moisture. In Margaret River we have to stay away from the tap.

Currently seventy percent of the grape gathered in Bordeaux is Merlot. Pomerols are valued by the market above all other dry red wines. In the United States demand for Merlot boomed, driven no doubt by the recognised benefits of red wine to cardiovascular health and also the relative approachability of the wine. That changed after the release of the film 'Sideways' popularising Pinot Noir.

Many oenophiles have turned up their noses since the mid-1990s, when "a glass of Merlot" became synonymous, for casual drinkers, with a glass of red wine. But sales never stopped rising, and Merlot passed Cabernet as America's best-selling red wine in 2000, according to the Wine Institute.

Now, everything has changed, thanks to just two lines in the movie "Sideways." In a much-quoted scene, the wine snob character Miles tells his easygoing friend Jack before a double-date dinner: "If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any fucking Merlot."

Is this indicative of the way opinions are formed, reputations established and industries turned from their established path?

Here is our take on the matter:

The advantage of Merlot, when it likes its home, is a certain sweet palatability that Cabernet Sauvignon, by its very structure, is denied. Whereas Cabernet shows a rather astringent backbone, a certain uni-dimensional stiffness in its constitution, Merlot, in its best examples, will show roundness on the palate, sweetness, and a glorious length of taste sensation that is difficult to match. Its tannin structure equals Cabernet but the mid- palate is more generous. Perceptions in wine have a lot to do with the balance between flavours rather than the absolute levels of particular components. Cabernet shows a more singular identity than Merlot in its aromatics, as does Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

Merlot has arguably been the Happ's flagship wine, our best recognised and most sought after red wine. We have been making it since 1984 and it has been very successful in shows with gold medals in 84, 85, 91, 93 and 94 and a couple of trophies for Three Hills Merlots. Over the years we have moved towards riper styles and longer skin contact. At the same time, show judges have been consciously rejecting wine with pyrazine aromatics. Today' Merlot is more intense in flavour, it becomes approachable at about three years of age, and will cellar for an extended period.