Hartz Barn 2003 Mail Box Merlot April 05

A brooding bouquet; it shows both sweet and spicy characters, with chocolate, leather, a touch of pine and a hint of mint. The majority of the fruit is ripe and provides plum, chocolate, spice and leathery blackberry; a small percentage appears to be slightly under-ripe and produces an herbaceous character. A muscular-weight wine with a solid backbone and firm consistency; this is certainly not a wimpy Merlot; the strong fruit totally fil and l the mouth with flavour and finishes with respectable length tannins. Whilst it is well balanced and should improve in the short term, my feeling is that will go hard and leathery. Still, it is a very enjoyable drop now and is rated as Recommended with *** for value. A credible result for a difficult vintage.