The most evident artifact of this wine’s position is a hell of a lot of oak, of the Bounty Bar sort, and a density of fruit not seen in the lower rungs. On opening, the wine fairly yelled its seriousness across the room. Give it a good decant — or in my case a couple of days of air — and the seriousness remains intact, minus the outré oak character and volume. So do give it some time, and you’ll be rewarded with a powerful nose of fleshy, liquerous fruit and luscious oak, young but quite well integrated, and curiously attractive subsidiary notes of licorice and spice.

The palate is characterised mostly by a flood of clean fruit. Despite the oak and dense structure, the fruit flows freely through the mouth, showing that especially nice red/black berry McLaren Vale character that fans of the region will recognise and rejoice in. More licorice and oak flavours accompany the berry fruit, along with a slightly astringent, bitter finish that should calm with some more time in the bottle. Certainly, the fruit remains present and attractive along the entire line. Nice long finish.

This is a good wine and what I was hoping for from this maker — a reserve-level wine that, in some respects, takes an obvious approach (oak, density, etc) but which nevertheless retains the fun of its lower priced siblings. 

Update: subsequent conversations with the winery reveal this was bottled in November 2009, for release mid-2010. I should imagine my day 2 experience will be closer to the wine as it will be on release.