Would someone please give Barney Flanders a break? As if it’s not enough that the weather has played havoc with Garagiste’s yields, Barney and Cam’s new wine bar, Tonc, suffered serious fire damage on its opening weekend last month. Despite all this, Merricks’s major star, to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams, ‘still knows where his towel is’. While the last few years have not been kind when it comes to crop sizes on the peninsula, quality has travelled in the opposite direction. The cool, protracted seasons have given Barney fruit of incredible detail and complexity, and the wines have never tasted better. For Barney, 2024 bears comparison to 2022 and 2023, in both conditions and quality. “The wines are so fine and elegant, but with so much detail and finesse,” he told us. 2024 saw a bit more sunshine than the preceding years, a trait that shows in the potency of both the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Barney has likened these 2024 wines to his excellent 2015 bottlings. “There’s definitely a bit of an x-factor here,” he tells us. It goes without saying that vintage conditions are only part of wine’s complex jigsaw. Garagiste and Merricks go hand-in-hand, and this year’s release marks Barney’s 20th year farming his flagship site. “It’s such an exciting place to grow vines,” he admits with a telling smile. “There’s such diversity in small patches, such uniqueness in little plots; farming here has taught me a lot about growing grapes, making wine and understanding place.” In the cellar, Barney has now entirely shifted his Chardonnay vinification to thick-stave, large-format wood, with new oak playing an increasingly limited role. “I see a slower evolution with the thicker staves,” he told us. “Things are more subtle, and it allows me to get closer to my ideal style.” That Flanders believes he can draw even more finesse from his vines gives cause to celebrate. For now, it would be hard to argue against his 2024 Merricks wines being—and let’s not say this lightly—the finest Merricks Pinot and Chardonnay he has bottled.