Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Revivalist Merlot shows dark plum and savory notes of a little toast, raw cocoa, and caffè latte. The silky tannins are accompanied by a long finish.
Blend: 93% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
With a short time aerating, this reveals supple blackcurrant and black cherry flecked in savory herbs with a saline, iodine bass note. There's a decent lick of chocolatey cola-like oak showing here, too, clearly the hand of a barrel-loving Napa producer (namely Chris Carpenter of Jackson Family Wines). But overall it's a polished, even sexy, wine that's structured for the long haul but drinkable now, too, beside a plate of protein.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 The Revivalist Merlot comes from a vineyard planted in 1971 and leads with brambly mintiness, cocoa and dark chocolate, raspberry and plum, aniseed and thyme. This is a classy wine. It has inflections of green, but it nails the brief Merlot characters, and the tannins in the mouth really ground the experience. I think this will age very well indeed. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
-
Australian Wine Companion
Wild fermented with 16 days on skins; 15 months in French barriques (60% new) before a couple of months in old foudre, post blending. Mocha, coffee bean, damson plum and a slither of herb-crusted tannins, beautifully managed. A full-weighted wine, with a lilt of herbal freshness. As good as merlot gets on these shores.
-
James Suckling
Wild fermented with 16 days on skins; 15 months in French barriques (60% new) before a couple of months in old foudre, post blending. Aromas of mocha, coffee beans, damson plums and a slither of herb-crusted tannins are beautifully managed. A full-weighted wine, with a lilt of herbal freshness. As good as merlot gets on these shores.
-
Wine Spectator
Lively and juicy, with a core of cherry, plum and raspberry flavors that are bright and expressive in this white. Details of oolong tea, dried violet and white pepper add complexity, with cigar box and hickory accents on the long, velvety finish. Drink now through 2034.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.