31.1.12

Today thou shalt have an easy drinking time : Pikes The Dogwalk Cabernet Merlot 2006, Clare Valley SA

This time I've got a very accessible and smoothed Cabernet Merlot form Clare Valley in South Australia for you people out there on the internet. "The Dogwalk” from Pikes, a family winery right on Polish Hill River, appeared to be what many people demand from an Australian Bordelais Blend Wine: Smoothness, accessibility, unelaborateness, fruitiness (and maybe sweetness), palatability, alc and plenty of concentration.
Let me anticipate a bit. You may find every mentioned aspect in this wine, but in a more sophisticated and well proportionated way. It wasn’t an example for an industrially processed and faceless wine like those low cost (or not) products from very well known hyper-large-wineries which you can find all over South Australia.



My nose was fetching typical and clear scents black pepper, sweet paprika, bramble, plums, dark cherries, overripe tomatoes and an overall fruitful classiness, or maybe perfume, from the sweetside. I am about to mentioned sweet or sweetness rather often. That might have been a problem!? Well, for me, too much sweetness in a Cab Merlot is not what I desire most! Definitely not! However in this case the sweetness wasn’t superimposed or kitsch'y. However it was a close shave! A bit less would have been more satisfying. The flavours I got were spicy dark cherries and plums, hints of licorice, black currant (I am not sure!), slight impressions of oak, hints of pepper, not a lot of minerality, expressional fruit sweetness (again!) and some typical herbal Merlot features. The tannins appeared to be tamed, the acid might have been a bit too mild and the actual concentration of the wine was decently strong, but definitely not exuberant. Apart of the slightly too strong alcohol drive the balance appeared to be pretty exemplary for a CM from SA. As I shalt: I hath an easy drinking time.




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