Heritage Road - a wine that says G'day and means it

Heritage Road

2008 Reserve

Merlot South Eastern Australia

Price to be confirmed - reckon 3 for 2 at Tesco, £5 a bottle

In my opinion, food on a Monday night should fall somewhere between nursery fare and school dinners. Let's face it, the first day back on a new working week really doesn't warrant any major culinary celebration at the dining table, especially in these increasingly dark and gloomy autumn nights. Basically, on a night like this all I want is something quick, tasty and comforting - maybe with a drop of wine left over from the weekend.

This evening's meal was some old Portobello mushrooms fried in butter and plonked on a slice of rustic wholemeal toast. It was washed down with a deservedly rugged glass of Merlot from Heritage Wines - a brand developed, according to its website, by Lisa McGuigan, the daughter of Brian McGuigan of McGuigan Wines. A former winemaker at the highly regarded Barossa Valley-based Penfolds Winery, Mr McGuigan and his daughter certainly know their craft and can bring to the table some really punchy numbers.

The bottle accompanying my mushrooms on toast was in fact a present from my brother in law who told me he wanted to buy me something French - he knows me too well. However, this little number 12,000 miles south is considerably better than equally priced Gallic offerings and is a very capable, drinkable Merlot - particularly so given its youth (2008).

On first tasting, I did wonder whether it was a touch on the watery side but three glugs later it started to show some body and a bit of flexibility. The intensity of flavour is not as strong as its deep ruby colour nor its seductive red berry bouqet suggests - "but come off it mate", as they might say in Aussie, "the stuff is younger than a marsupial's first birthday so what do you expect". And quite right too.

Handsomely presented and competitively priced, this is a respectable young up start from Down Under and one that I would certainly put on the table for a night of washing down pizzas, french bread and cheese or a wintery caserole. This is the kind of Aussie wine that says G'day to you and lets you get on with it, rather than tries southern hemisphere gentility by putting on a fake English accent.

Very Decent Wine: 7/10 (it's honest - and therefore decent for being so)

Dinner Party Appeal: 7/10 (probably feels more at home on the barbie)

Probability of buying again: 8/10 (why not, it's a well crafted wine and nicely priced)

Value for Money: 9/10 (current supermarket deals suggest this is a blinder mate)