Marques de Casa Concha, Merlot 2010, Chile
I don’t feature too many Merlots as my Wine of the Week. Though the grape is certainly capable of greatness – look at some of the best wines of Ponerol and St Emilion in Bordeaux where it is the main player – too often Merlot is made as simple, sweet, unstructured stuff that’s quaffable but little more. This comes from carefully selected vineyards on Concha y Toro’s Puema estate, with clay soils similar to Bordeaux’s right bank, and the wine is aged in top quality French oak barrels. It has a sumptuous and wonderfully inviting nose of pencil shaving and tobacco over soft, ripe, fleshy plum and blackcurrant fruit. In the mouth that fat, sweet, chocolate-rich depth of ripe fruit is nicely framed by the supple, ripe tannins and nicely focused acidity, and the cedary, savoury and spicy character of the oak. Long, delicious and structured too. Watch the video for more information and for food-matching suggestions for this wine. 12.99, selected Tesco and a number of independent merchants: see all stockists on .
