Monday eve calls for a comfy spoiling of tastebuds. This has marked the whole festivities, so we need to keep the momentum going. And as the occasion calls, it’s time to pick a Merlot tonight. What better than the one from Movia.

2014 was indeed a challenging vintage, but it served to prove the bravery of our winemakers. Here the vineyard is named Brežič, and it faces Southeast exposures. Vines are forty years of age and looked after organic farming principles – as is the case with all Movia’s vines. The soil, Brda’s own Opoka.

Merlot grapes were handpicked end of September and the first week of October. Only selected healthy bunches were used to produce this wine after destemming and crushing the mash fermented with indigenous yeast in vinification vats. After finishing fermentation, it soaked for a further week and only then it was gently pressed and racked in French barrique barrels. It matured there for 36 months, also conducting malolactic fermentation. After bottling without filtration, the wine underwent almost two years of bottle-ageing.

Movia’s Merlot presents with a deep, ruby red colour. Its texture is dense, quickly stopping when swirling it in the glass.

The bouquet is seductively intense. We perceive ripe cherries, plums, mulberries, chokeberries, hibiscus flower, and dry red rose petals, with a delicate note of cinnamon, carob, cocoa, and coconut. Butter crust is flirting with fruit aromas, recalling a delicious cherry tart. Eucalyptus emanates from the background, and the circle completes with hints of graphite.

The taste is distinctly soft. It refreshes us, leaving the stage to the mineral perceptions, playing with silky astringent, slightly spicy tannins. This only indicates its ageing potential. The taste is intense and persistently elegant, full-bodied.

A harmonious Merlot undoubtedly, defying the characteristics of the vintage with such a pronounced elegance. It has the potential to age for at least the next seven years, if not even more.

You can get a bottle for approximately 30 Eur at eVino, Koželj, vinoteka Sodček, TuamV, Wine You and Triple “A”.