Leconfield 2009 Cabernet Merlot

Inevitably, a period where you've built up the stocks will be followed by one where you're running them back down again, which largely accounts for the lack of recent blog action in these parts, though the cricket coverage over on the Little House of Concrete Sports Desk also impinges on the equation.

The summer of Riesling and Rose tends to take us away from heartier red styles, but we've also been experimenting with the slow cooker in the air-conditioned living area, which brings them right back into calculations, and in this particular case brings them back with rather alarming rapidity.

I'd availed myself of a couple of offers from Vinomofo, one of which was supposed to push this particular carton a little further down the pecking order so that the contents just might last through to the notional winter, and had just polished off the last of a box of Tahbilk Cellar Door Reds when I ordered the second of them (a Hay Shed Hill Pitchfork Cab Merlot) that would, I figured, do for everyday drinking and push this Leconfield onto slightly more special occasion status.

So, not to put too fine a point on it, I didn't head off to Tahbilk for a resupply, the Pitchfork met with logistical problems and we're almost half way through a case of wine that, as noted in the note, has definite issues with evaporation.

Leconfield 2009 Cabernet Merlot (4.5* $25) Bright crimson in the glass, with fragrant oaky chocolate and mint through the nostrils. Once it hits the taste buds Cabernet cassis and plummy Merlot combine to form a rounded style with refined silky tannins. Medium-bodied elegant wine that's easy to savour and brings a definite evaporation problem to the table. Excellent now, would go on for several years but unlikely to get the chance.