From one of Margaret River's best and original producers, Vasse Felix comes this excellent Cabernet Merlot blend has great concentration of blackcurrant fruit with cedary oak and fine tannins - a style with elegance and finesse rather than power.

One of the Margaret River's more celebrated producers, Howard Park have forged a healthy cult following. The 2001 Cabernet Blend is a full bodied red that has developed liquorice and humidor characters beneath a layers of concentrated blackberry.

Dollar for dollar, wines such as this truly are remarkable value. Soft, round with flavours of ripe plums, blackcurrant and a finely grained mouthfeel.

The Classic Collection Merlot by Grant Burge is an attractive modern style Merlot that is jam-packed full of all the fruit flavours Merlot lovers have come to adore; Plum, Blueberry and Blackcurrant. Along with that dense fruitiness comes a medium weight in the palate that isn't overladen with sweetness which lends itself magnificently to food pairing with a lean pork and chickpea salads.

A medium bodied wine with aromas of dark fruits and understated oak. A generous palate showing vibrant, rich fruit flavours and soft mouth-coating tannins.

Bimbadgen Ridge Shiraz Cabernet Merlot is a medium bodied wine that combines the firm fruity characters of Shiraz with the length and finish of Cabernet and soft fleshy Merlot.

This De Bortoli Cabernet Merlot blend combines rich, dark berry from the Cabernet's flavour with soft, plumy Merlot. An ideal accompaniment to pasta, veal or pork.

Intense yet elegant. A clean, precise and powerful expression of dark berry fruits, fine tannins and intergrated oak.

Château Pétrus is one of Bordeaux's most important vineyard sites, lying on the easterly edge of the Pomerol appellation bordering Saint-Émilion. Although wines of Pomerol have never been classified, it is widely recognised that Pétrus is the most outstanding wine of the appellation, if not the entire Right Bank. Almost always made entirely of Merlot, the 2009 is one such vintage which is 100% single varietal. The perfect vintage conditions have provided the expert team at Pétrus the ideal opportunity to provide with a wine that comes as close to perfection as humanly possible. Stunning concentration and complexity run through the entire palate that is remarkably ready to drink today, yet will live comfortably in the cellar gathering further intense flavours and aromas for the next 20 to 30 years.

The high altitude Orange region is producing some outstanding Merlot and this release, made by Debbie Lauritz, is a great example. Aromas of dried herb and currant are supported with sweet fruit flavours.