Black & Ginger The Virginia Merlot 2023

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Black & Ginger The Virginia Merlot 2023.

Black & Ginger The Virginia Merlot 2023
$65, 13.4% alcohol, screwcap, Great Western/Grampians.

Organically-grown merlot from the Grampians region, made in tiny quantity (44 dozen only). It’s a wine worthy of contemplation. It’s spicy, it’s ripe-fruited, it’s fresh; it’s many things. It’s also laced with fine-grained tannin, and splashed with black pepper, and run with a smidgen of chocolate-like character, the latter just enough to give the palate a feeling of silk. We’re in medium-weight red wine territory here, in the best of ways. It’s harmonious, a bit minty, and a lot lovely. 94 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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