2014 Museum Release Merlot

Dirty, Dusty & Dangerous. This expression is really rich and deep maroon in colour, the grapes come from up in broke that we acquired from a friend who’s grapes are grown exclusively on volcanic clay giving the wine an exceptionally earthy flavour. The aroma is deep intense plums and blackberries that is accentuated by earthy dusty notes not like the classic ‘mushroom’ description but instead minerally and you can really taste the clay. Like our Shiraz Cabernet we age the Broken Man in a mixture of french oak and american oak barrels which brings out the robust and brash nature of the grape. Has peppery and leather undertones that are subtle now but beginning to develop. The Broken Man name comes from the grape growing region but also due to a story relating to this vintage in particular, during the harvest of these grapes he had the harvester going through just as Broke was struggling with flooding and rain events… his harvester sank in the middle of the vine row and they had to cut out over 100 vines to get the harvester out. After loosing our grapes, our friend loosing his vines and there being losses across the valley we are sure that there was more than one broken man.