I went into the wine cooler the other day and found that we still had a bottle of wine the in-laws had brought with them when they visited over Christmas, a Dieu Donné 2011 Merlot.
Dieu Donné Vineyards is situated high on the southwest-facing slopes of the Franschhoek Mountains, in the Western Cape of South Africa. The topsoils are of weathered granite and rocky "greywack," and the climate is cool and temperate, leading to the non-irrigated vines not over-producing, and delivering a good concentration of the flavour and character of the terrior in the grapes.
This was evident in this 2011 Merlot. There were the typical fruits and smooth tannin, but it also carried a unique mineral undertone.
This medium-to-full-bodied Merlot was almost good. It had strong flavours of dark berries and a smooth and broad tannin structure, but the strong oak and mineral undertones come to the fore in every sip. It didn't carry a long finish, and was quickly forgotten on the palate. To me it had a rather disappointing finish to what was a fairly decent start. There is much better out there in the same price bracket.
A just barely above average wine, let down by the short finish which left very little to enjoy after the sip. Somewhate disapointing, I score this a middle of the road 2.5 out of 5.
Cheers!
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