From the Cellar: Vidal Hawkes Bay Merlot Cab Sav 2008 – $

This was cheap when I bought it, but it came recommended by a popular foodie magazine. I bought a brace of bottles, and tried the first back in January. This was what I wrote about it then:

Inky blood-black colour. 13.5%. A blend of merlot, cabernet, malbec and franc. It has a warm and enveloping bouquet. Notes of vanilla and cassis and cedar wood. Balanced mature flavours of ripe plums and blackberry wine gums, molasses and fruitcake spice to taste. Long and unctuous, with good lip-smacking tannins at the finish. 4.5

Well, what I have here in my glass now must be a bad ‘un. The wine is the same colour, and has the same bouquet notes, but it is much backed off. Thinner on the palate, reedy, some bitter characters, acidic, lack of unctuousness. The damn thing doesn’t have the breeding to ‘tunnel’, so it must be a fault. I’m gonna leave it alone for another day or so and see if what’s left in the bottle wakes up.

And I did…and for another day after. The wine got softer and rounder. The harder metallic edge evaporated and richer notes of fruit came to the fore. It got better, although not as flavourful and exemplary as the January example. 3