TN Mount Langi Ghiran Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1998

[JamieBahrain]

I have always tended toward the slightly more expensive Shiraz, a wine that rewards me in less fashionable SA vintages-89 and 95 etc! So my experience with the cabernet merlot limited to a few occcassions.

Personally, I find it an agreeable style and the merlot goes a long way to help in a region less reknown for cabernet.

I have noticed many people critical of Langi wines on release. I find they
benifit significantly with a couple of years and it is not hard to find a Langi with bottle age retail. Due the Smith & Son (distributor) influenced price hike a few years ago.

1998 Langi Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot-

Dark red-purple, youthful still but lacking the vibrancy of release.

The oak and fruit integration evident on the nose. Ripe berry and underlying plummy merlot fruit.

Full bodied and mouthfilling with the black fruit spectrum. The wine has great persistance with their classic shiraz licorice/pepper/spice finish. There is the blended French&American Oak evidence in the finish. The long but softened effect.

This wine lives in the shadow of the classic shiraz. Langi Cabernet merlot is not hard to find in the early thirty dollars and with bottle age. This making it good value in that troublesome for value price range.

May have been wishful thinking, but did find some of the shiraz attributes in this wine on opening and in the backpalate.

Food friendly style.