Sweet Caroline wines are thoughtfully crafted for an easy-drinking and sophisticated wine experience. These are a refreshing range of wines entirely for those of us who love the softer,light and fruity taste of wine. Each variety is a pure and classic expression showing bright, elegant and gentle sweet fruit flavour that finishes light, soft and very long. You‘ll know even before you take your first sip, Sweet Caroline is just what you’ve been looking for! Bright purple with raspberry red hue. The wine has lifted aromatics of blackberry, plum and vanilla. The palate is bright and juicy with dark berry fruit flavours supported by light brown spices in a softly rounded, fleshy wine. Long and satisfying, finishing refreshing and flavoursome.

Audrey Wilkinsons Merlot is a mellow, easy approaching style that is packed with ripe plum aromas and subtle oak. It is matured in French and American oak for 18 months, giving the wine soft tannins and a flavoursome finish.

Ornellaia’s second wine is a blend of 54% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot with maturation taking place in barriques, 25% of which were new, for a period of 15 months. Pitch black core with a very deep dark red black hue. Cassis, black cherry and liquorice scents sail out of the glass with some cedary tobacco, dried herb, scorched earth and spice notes also evident. Rich blackcurrant and ripe dark cherry fruits carry ample weight and flesh across the palate. Liquorice, vanillin cedar, scorched earth, dried herb and spicy tobacco characters also chime in. Firm slightly drying tannins lend some grip to the long robust aftertaste that has a rustic touch to it. Cellar 6-8 years. Alc. 14.5%

A Gold, 92pt beauty. Château La Clarière is blessed with 50 different vineyard plots, all ideally situated on the superb limestone plateau from where both Saint-Emilion and Castillon’s finest wines hail. However, the grapes from the Enclos single vineyard, literally five metres from Saint-Emilion’s priciest Grands Crus Classés, have always been kept separate. It’s a vineyard surrounded by hedgerows, shrubs and dotted with trees – its most biodiverse; farmed organically too. All Merlot, carefully fermented on the estate, with regular plunge down and a year’s ageing in part new and part seasoned French oak barrels, it’s a very fine, velvety claret. Open early and preferably decant. It will make a very handsome partner to roast red meats or a cheeseboard.

This is a single vineyard Merlot from Carl Lindners Lohner Vineyard, located in the cooler, wetter southern end of the Barossa which is well suited to growing Merlot. In the glass: Full deep red. On the nose: Dark berry, cassis and cedar.On the palate: Full-bodied with dark fruits balanced by a light leafy freshness. Firm, ripe tannins drive the coffee and anise-like finish.

Tucked away in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux, next to Saint Emilion, is award winning Château de Colombe, a tiny estate much neglected until we took ownership in 2012. Now it’s being lavished with utmost care in the vineyard and the cellar. Our Head Winemaker, Haut-Brion-trained Jean-Marc Sauboua, quickly spotted the potential of its steep, south-facing slopes and limestone soils. Judging by the 11 Golds won over the last five vintages (two for 2020), he was spot on. 2020 has been unanimously declared as 'exceptional', its fruit deliciously ripe, which has made for a very much ‘drink me now’ style. Merlot with a little of both Cabernets and Malbec, aged a few months in barrel, this red is fruit-rich and supple. For now open early and decant.

McGuigan produce another fantastically smooth and rich Merlot from their Black Label range. It is a soft and flavoursome wine with ripe fruit flavours of raspberry, cherry and plums integrated with subtle oak.