Winetastic

Meerea Park wines are available for tasting at The Boutique Wine Centre at Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley. The cellar door itself is a small and personal affair, where we were looked after very well by our host Garth.

We started by tasting the Meerea Park ‘Epoch’ Semillon 2005 ($19), which is a drink-now approachable style. Widely available in bottle shops for less, the wine is soft and refreshing with some subtle citrus flavours, expect a proper review soon. The ‘Alexander Munro’ Semillon 2001 ($35) is released having been aged for 5 years after vintage. Already showing some developed toasty characters, this wine is right up there with the Tyrrels and Mount Pleasant premium Semillons.

As we moved away from the whites, some good quality red wine tasting glasses were presented. I cannot understand why other cellar doors with premium offerings do not provide the right glassware, well done Boutique Wine Center. The first red off the ranks was the Meerea Park Shiraz Viognier 2004 ($19), I thought it was better than the 2003 vintage with the fruit showing through with just a hint of a floral lift and a savory, earthy finish. The 2003 Cabernet Merlot ($23) was the only non-hunter wine we tasted, it was good but soon to be overshadowed.

Meerea Park ‘The Aunts’ Shiraz 2004 ($26) is a stunning wine. Excellent balance and length, once again the fruit shows through, however not in an overt sense as you may have experienced from similar quality wines from SA or VIC. Very good value for money even at the cellar door price, this will be a wine you can source even cheaper from fine wine retailers. I hope to give this wine a proper review on Winetastic soon.

Our final tasting was the ‘Alexander Munro’ Shiraz 2003 ($48), a big step up in price and quality, tasting this wine was almost a religious experience. More refined in style than ‘The Aunts’ however still packed with loads of red and dark fruits, each sip revealed further flavours and complexity. If this wine falls within your budget, I strongly recommend rushing out to grab some.

Overall the wines of Meerea Park were the best we tasted in our day trip to the hunter. The service at the Boutique Wine Centre is also second to none, this will definitely be my first stop on my next trip.

Website: http://www.meereapark.com.au