The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's 50 best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.
Wine Description
The Story
Grant Burge was a pioneer of Merlot in the Barossa Valley and planted the first Barossa Merlot vineyard in the Hillcot Vineyard in 1982. When our first straight Merlot was produced, there were only two others available in Australia, and although there are more straight Merlots being produced now, Grant Burge Hillcot Merlot sits among the top-selling Merlots in its price bracket.
The 2016 vintage in the Barossa saw a cool winter with lower than average rainfall, which continued into spring, with warmer than average temperatures through November, December and January. Late January rain combined with a mild February and March allowed for a smooth harvest and good flavour development. The 2016 vintage is regarded as a very good to exceptional year for reds in the Barossa.
The fruit was crushed into static fermenters and left on skins to extract the colour and flavour of the fruit. The wine was fermented at between 24 and 28°C to retain delicate fruit characters. The wine was matured in a combination of French and American oak for 15 months before being bottled.
Vintage 2012
Lower-than-average yields in Australia, as across much of Europe. This was blamed on high winds, drought and low fruitfulness resulting from the poor 2011 vintage. Quality, however, was much better than in the exceptionally damp 2011, with South Australia avoiding some of the weather extremes experienced by other states. Strong varietal typicality is a commonly cited feature of the 2012 crop.