MERITE wines of Wrattonbully

11/06/2025

A wine from Wrattonbully Wine Region has won BOTH
“Wine of the Year Australian” and
“ Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year”
at the Sommeliers Choice Awards 🇺🇸

Fantastic for us but also a great recognition for Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. We think Wrattonbully Cabernet Sauvignon has long been recognised by local winemakers as one of Australia's best kept secrets and we have been working really hard to have it available in restaurants and stores and recognised internationally so this award means alot.

https://sommelierschoiceawards.com/

11/04/2025

08/08/2024

We only release a handful of wines each year and so we are just thrilled to have earned a 4.5 star rating with the Halliday Wine Companion.
To view complete Wine Companion tasting notes for our wines please visit www.winecompanion.com.au/wineries/south-australia/wrattonbully/mrite-wines

17/07/2024

Thanks to Christina Pickard for her interest in Australia's unique viticultural challenges. We shared our experiences with our resident echidna in Wine Enthusiast USA
www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/australian-vineyard-pests/?queryID=79bd6b53a0fff89bf0481cb32043131e&objectID=post #180824&indexName=PROD_WINEENTHUSIAST_ARTICLES Wrattonbully Wine Region

From kangaroos to poisonous snakes, these unique Australian animals can wreak havoc on vineyards. Here’s how vintners are handling them.

10/04/2024

I appreciated this opportunity to share a vintage update with Forbes USA to show Australian wine regions are not all 'sunshine in a bottle' but much more diverse and the reasons why Wrattonbully is a premium wine region. An excerpt...

Photo thanks to With Love Photography
Wrattonbully Wine Region

05/12/2023

Enjoy Jane Anson and Sarah Kemp’s latest 10 Minute Masterclass on Merlot, including some unexpected planting data and why it saw a jump in popularity in 20th century Bordeaux. We’re chuffed that Jane included our MERITE Merlot from Wrattonbully among her examples from around the world she recommends. https://janeanson.com/podcast/10-minute-masterclass-merlot

11/11/2023

We've recently received some attention for our Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Vinous wrote an in-depth guide on South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, focused on Coonawarra and other Limestone Coast wine regions and beyond. Worth reading for those exploring Australian Cabernet Sauvignon https://vinous.com/articles/killer-cabernet-from-coonawarra-and-friends-oct-2023

As part of this guide, Angus Hughson reviewed our current 2020 vintage: "From a rising star, this seamless 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon offers quite a classic varietal style - cedar, woodsmoke and red currant aromas with attractive poise and finesse. On the palate, it jumps out of the blocks with stylish cassis and mulberry supported by a firm lineup of tannins through to a lingering finish. Its well-pitched to enjoy over the next decade." 92 points.

Also this month our 2015 vintage has been made available in the UK with The Wine Society 1874

And so I thought it timely to share some photos of the climatic and geographical influences that come together to create this wine, along with images to show how beautiful our Q45 clone of Merlot is at harvest time ( it is blended into this Cabernet Sauvignon wine) as well as some interesting pics of when this parcel was first planted in 2000 to now. It really does remind me what a twenty year journey it has been to make this wine. Enjoy!

01/11/2023

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 "Australian Merlot! Who knew it would be so good!" 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

I'm just loving seeing our Merlot join wine lists in the USA like Maple & Ash, Bar Mar by Jose Andres in Chicago, Carbon Country Steakhouse, Yellowstone Club in Montana, and Bourbon Steak Nashville.

And to read reactions like this is the greatest compliment - our dream was to build a vineyard capable of producing a wine that was the antithesis of what people expected of Australian Merlot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn0tGN7D4W2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

06/08/2023

We only release a handful of wines each year and so we are just thrilled to have earned a 4 star rating with the Halliday Wine Companion.
To view complete Wine Companion tasting notes for our wines please visit winecompanion.com.au/wineries/south-australia/wrattonbully/mrite-wines

22/05/2023

A selection of our reserve wines are available nationally at Qantas Wine - both in mixed packs and by the bottle. Supporting independent wineries. Use or earn Qantas Points. Browse their range of wines here >> https://wine.qantas.com/c/merite-wines/page-1?sort=featured

16/11/2022

New release | Vintage 2020 of our MERITE Q Merlot |

2020 certainly was a challenging vintage in the vineyard: heatwave after heatwave swept through, each one with the threat of a bushfire.

During heatwaves, grapevines are at risk of defoliating from stress, and grapes being exposed to direct sunlight and damaged. Loss of too many leaves also means the vine loses power to photosynthesise later during the ripening period. It takes skill and knowledge of your site to be able to irrigate during these times just enough to protect the vines but not too much that it swells up your berries or triggers disease.

During heatwaves, overnight, if the temperature drops low enough, pore-like stomata will open and the vines will destress before the next day’s heat. Our region is one that benefits from the Bonney Upwelling phenomenon from mid January until harvest, that helps to lower night time temperatures.

Oh, and then came lockdowns starting right at harvest time.

After all the stresses of this vintage, I approached the post ferment tastings frazzled and expecting the fruit to reflect the stresses of the year. If we were spent, what would the fruit do? I was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted lovely.

2020 MERITE Q MERLOT is available now in Dan Murphys Wine Merchant stores nationally https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_37293/merite-q-merlot?isFromSearch=true&isPersonalised=false&pageName=category_page