Full Pour

Jacob's Creek St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

2012-05-10T09:04:47Z

A blast from the relatively recent past, this 2008 Coonawarra Cabernet comes later than most of its brethren, even those at the premium end.

I'm struggling with this wine a bit, because it seems to have set off a sulfur reaction in my respiratory tract that has me coughing between sniffs. Through all the sputtering, a well defined aroma profile emerges, which includes mint, spice, dark fruit, leaf and other goodies. It's a correct, ripe aroma profile, showing the hot 2008 vintage quite clearly, as do most of the other 2008 Coonawarra Cabernets I have tasted. If I've a criticism, it's that this is a little bland and tilted towards fruit sweetness, lacking the element of angularity that I feel a good Cabernet from this region ought to have.

The palate is again well built but certainly a product of its vintage, with very ripe, sweet fruit and the sort of tannin structure best described as blobby (though very fine too). Immediate flavour on entry, becoming more expansive through the middle palate. The fruit is sweet and so is the oak, the overall impression being one of generosity but not finesse and certainly not savouriness. Having said that, this will be very appealing to lots of people for its fleshiness and relative ease. The after palate and finish are of a decent length, and there's a welcome hit of Cabernet leaf on the finish.

Quite a long way from what I like to drink, but a well judged wine for mass appeal.
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Jacob's Creek
Price: $49.95
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Tulloch Private Bin Pokolbin Dry Red Shiraz 2010

2012-05-08T09:35:13Z

This wine and the Thomas Kiss from 2010 are, taken together, a case study in Hunter Shiraz's current stylistic dilemma. A region with such history must surely think twice before shedding its legacy but, at the same time, even the best wines aren't static, nor does the context in which they exist stop evolving.

The one thing that emerges most clearly from the glass is Hunter fruit in its turned earth, red berried glory. There's a rustic suppleness to the character of this region's reds that consistently engages me and which I find delicious. Good detail and even a hint of savouriness fill out the aroma profile, as does some subtle, seemingly old, vanilla and spice oak.

The palate is defined by its textural acid and medium body. Entry is sprightly and flavoursome, leading to a middle palate that is bright with red fruit and crunchy berry skins. There's a slight simplicity to the fruit that may be a function of youth - certainly, this has the structure to build for some time in bottle and I suspect the best is yet to come. In terms of flavour profile, this is significantly more savoury than the Kiss, a fact that is quite evident in side-by-side tasting. There's good flow of flavour through the after palate, although the finish pulls up a little quickly for my liking.

Whether it's a better wine than the Thomas is perhaps the most interesting question to ask, and on that matter I'm not sure. On the one hand, its style is more to my taste. But we shouldn't be so unsophisticated as to regard our personal preferences as the sole factor in deciding an object's worth, and in many respects I believe the Kiss wine is better: better fruit, more complexity, more innovative treatment in the winery, greater daring. It's the difference between attraction and admiration, I suppose, and it would be a sad world in which we were forced to choose just one or the other.

For what it's worth, and as an advocate of tradition in these matters, I find myself gravitating towards the Kiss after an hour or so of tasting. Go figure.
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Tulloch Wines
Price: $A50
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Thomas Kiss Shiraz 2010

2012-05-08T09:22:01Z

A showdown of sorts this evening between two range-topping Hunter Shirazes from 2010. First up is Andrew Thomas's Kiss Shiraz.

I recently tasted the Motel Block from this vintage and there's a definite family resemblance here. The same fullness of flavour, slightly buried regionality of fruit character, slickness of presentation. But everything here is dialled up to 11. This is, make no mistake, the flagship of the range, and there are lashings of oak and ramped up fruit density to remind one of the fact. The nose is purple-fruited and basically a wall of aroma with, despite its dimensions, plenty of detail and nuance. Oak is certainly a feature, and comes across as a mélange of coffee, vanilla and bubblegum notes.

The palate is verging on full bodied and, as with the nose, piles on intense flavour. Flow through the mouth is well-controlled and has a slickness to it that, while impressive, seems a bit polished, as if some of the more interesting rough edges may have been sanded off at some point. I especially admire how the flavour profile is so integrated even at this wine's very young age. It makes the wine approachable now, even though I'd be setting aside a stash to come together more and build some complexity, as well as shed some of the boisterous intensity of its youth. A thread of slightly raw tannins through the finish isn't especially distracting and, for me, adds some welcome savouriness to the flavour profile.

This is a beautifully made wine with a very clear stylistic statement to make. Perhaps because it comes so close to reaching its big goals, this raises more questions for me than did the Motel Block around what Hunter Shiraz ought to taste like. To be sure, this is leagues away from the sort of rustic, acid-driven wines that are still cherished by some producers and punters and which, one might argue, are somewhat of a ball and chain on the region's profile.

For drinkers, like me, who love the older style, this certainly throws down the gauntlet. Would I prefer to drink it over less well made wines that take a more traditional approach? Perhaps not. At the same time, I want smart winemakers to keep challenging our ideas around regional style. These things need to evolve, and wines like this are capable of keeping the Hunter alive.
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Thomas Wines
Price: $A60
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Offcuts: Brisbane Single Bottle Dinner

2012-05-02T10:29:15Z

All quiet on the blog front of late, mostly due to some travels that have left little time to write. They have, however, provided ample opportunity to drink exceptionally well, and I've been enjoying many excellent wines. I will write some up as time allows.

Before I left Brisbane, however, I did attend the first of what I hope will be a regular series of dinners with seven other local wine enthusiasts. We were each asked to bring a bottle to share and our host arranged for the restaurant Two Small Rooms to build a matching menu. So far, so good.

I won't go through every wine, although each no doubt deserves to be written up in some detail. Suffice to say the group were extraordinarily generous with their chosen bottles, and the food matches were carefully considered.

Although I'm realising that Cabernet-based wines are often a second choice for me, two Bordeaux provided the most intellectual stimulation of the evening. A 1970 Rausan-Ségla was still in fine shape, though not in the least bit fleshy. Instead, a beautiful old red wine, leaking mushrooms, old leather, cedar and tobacco from every pore. The palate showed firm acid and surprising fruit sweetness too. A lovely thing.

By contrast, a 1985 Léoville Barton remained a real brute of a wine, full of oak and dense, spectacularly complex fruit. I especially liked the aroma, which seemed endlessly deep and dark, and I was happy to lose myself in it for quite a while.

A tranche of sweet wines that accompanied our excellent dessert deserve special mention. We pitted a 1970 Château Suduiraut against a 1999 Ballandean Estate Sylvaner, the only Queensland wine of the night. Although I feel the Suduiraut was in all respects the better wine, and I enjoyed it a great deal, I kept coming back to the Sylvaner for its fresh, boisterous liveliness, which felt great with food and was a lot of fun.

To finish off the evening, and I suspect quite a few of us too, we indulged in a Chambers Special Tokay, which I'm positive I could still taste at the conclusion of my taxi ride home.

Clayfield Massif Reserve Shiraz 2009

2012-04-21T09:26:57Z

Some Clayfield wines are luscious in the Grampians ultra-plum and spice mode. Others, like this, occupy a different space, one of finer, more sinewy aromas and lower levels of alcohol (in this case, a mere 13.6% ABV). Spice is still present (this is a Grampians Shiraz, after all), but the vibe is darker and more angular.

Interestingly, it comes across as no less luxurious than more plummy styles, no less full of quality materials and attention to detail. It's simply the difference between a tasseled velvet cushion and a hard, modernist bench: less comforting but utterly upscale nonetheless. The aroma is tightly coiled, with dark, dense plum skin and woody spice mixing with cedar oak and an iodine note that sometimes makes its way into Clayfield wines.

The palate is totally up front about how much flavour is packed into its crouched frame. Sometimes, it's quite tangible how much a wine needs some age, not because one can't discern its content, but because it's all there, in plain sight, simply held in check, frustratingly so, at times. In the case of this wine, this compression darkens the flavour profile, communicating muscularity and concentration and, more than anything, seriousness. Acid is tight and very fine in texture, tannins deceptively gentle (until you realise how much they have dried the finish). What's wonderful about this wine is how its compaction and density aren't in any way related to oak, as can so often be the case. It's the fruit that holds so tightly to this wine's secrets and which, one day, in a few years' time, will finally relax into free flow.

Update: two days on and it has hardly moved. This has years in it.
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Clayfield
Price: $?
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Thomas Wines Motel Block Shiraz 2010

2012-04-15T08:59:18Z

My first taste of this wine came after a flight of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines; it was a complete shock to my palate, so I set it aside for later tasting. I'm so glad I did, because it's full of interest and delicacy, very little of which I was able to discern at the earlier tasting.

The aromas has firm base notes but what is really impressive is a high toned, floral aroma that wafts above juicy berries and aromatic vanilla oak. Those white, honeysuckle flowers lead the aroma through a range of turned earth notes that, more than any other element, mark this as a product of the Hunter. When I first smelled this wine, each strand felt somewhat separated, but some air and swirling has brought the aromas together quite well, such that there's now a coherent flow from top to bottom. This a rich, energetic wine to smell.

I thought it might be a little overwhelming, but this is a surprisingly elegant wine, taking the fullness of flavour hinted at on the nose and translating that to an almost serene expression of Hunter Shiraz on the palate. Although its flavours are regional, this wine has little of the rusticity that some Hunters can show. Instead, it shows a poise and sophistication in the way it unfolds in the mouth, sweeping savoury red berries, spice and earth along in one big glossy package. Intensity is significant, as is tannic structure through the after palate.

This is just a really really good wine, and I can't see too many lovers of this region's Shiraz turning away from it. To be sure, a contemporary expression of the style, but no less interesting for it.
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Thomas Wines
Price: $A50
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Gift

Cumulus Chardonnay 2010

2012-04-11T10:04:00Z

Although deeply problematic, one of the most positively provocative aspects of Jonathan Nossiter's book, Liquid Memory, is its questioning of the manner in which we talk about wine. I've half-written a post expanding on these thoughts, and who knows if I'll ever finish it; I have, though, been more mindful since reading Mr Nossiter's book of the part, however small, I play in privileging a particular sort of wine conversation, one that centres on descriptors and a particularly banal narrative of wine, over a more aesthetically inclined view, in which one puts one's self and one's reaction to a given wine above a purely descriptive story of tasting.

This wine prompts me to think of such things because there's a schism between what I taste and how I feel. What I smell, first, is an incredibly clean wine with a range of aromas that is textbook with regard to how a cooler climate Chardonnay ought to taste. There's clean citrus fruit, a hint of white peach and the sort of tasteful, just-savoury-enough winemaking artifact to trigger an appreciative reaction. This wine is, in its way, perfectly formed, and I have no wish to deny the achievement associated with it (goodness knows I'm an expert in the art of fucking up winemaking). Yet I'm unmoved by it, in the same way I might pass yet another cleanly executed minimalist interior without so much as a "wow." What is, I wonder, the point of such lithe shapeliness? What is there for me to grab hold of and caress?

The palate is, again, beautifully executed. The oatmeal flavours are a real feature of the wine, taking quite severe fruit flavours and granting them dimension and texture. Balance is exceptional, as is shape and line. This really is a good wine, well-judged and full of inherent quality. It's just that I'm desperate for something human and sensual, a flaw or outsize dimension to give me an aesthetic hook on which to hang my own sense of beauty. It's as if I'm not good enough for this wine, that it doesn't care especially if I like it or not. But, in a profound sense, I need a wine to need me back, otherwise there's no dialogue, no reason to stick around and keep talking.

This wine deserves the deepest admiration for provoking such a reaction. A second date, however, is out of the question.
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Cumulus Wines
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Dowie Doole Reserve Shiraz 2010

2012-04-08T09:23:39Z

And now for the big guns. I've deliberately tasted the 2010 Dowie Doole Shirazes in ascending order of price, as I find it endlessly fascinating how producers differentiate wines at various price points within their range.

If the standard wine is all about drinkability, and the Cali Road character, the Reserve is concerned with packing as much in as possible. Without wanting to suggest its proportions are ridiculous (far from it), this wine is by far the most dense, firmly flavoured of the three. Oak is present, but I'm pleased the nose throws primarily fruit-driven aromas, really liquerous and rich, very much in the plum spectrum. These flavours aren't challenging; in fact, the aroma seems simply a much bigger, denser version of the entry level wine, more of everything in every way but never losing the rich ease of the region's Shiraz, which I adore.

The palate, while fully flavoured, is most striking for its ease and flow. This is such a mellifluous wine, moving gently through the entry and middle palate, pushing intense plum fruit out from its brisk line to cover the tongue with flavour. There are prickles of acid at the edges, nicely fresh but mostly undisturbed by the thickness of the wine's flavour and its generous body. It's probably full bodied, but comes across more medium, because it's fundamentally a relaxed wine, keen to be drunk rather than dissected. I like the bright red swell through the after palate, and the silty tannins that settle on the finish are delicious.

I've felt that some previous Reserve wines have been a bit oak-dominant and showy, but this is all high class deliciousness; sexy, sensuous and worth the money.
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Dowie Doole
Price: $A60
Closure: Diam
Source: Sample

Eloquesta by Stuart Olsen Shiraz Petit Verdot 2010

2012-04-03T09:04:18Z

Unbeknownst to me at the time of writing my note, the 2009 edition of this wine seems to have become something of a favourite amongst wine tweeters and bloggers. I admit to having mixed feelings about it, finding it more worthy than achieved. The refreshingly honest notes that came with this sample suggest 2010 was a difficult year, so I wasn't sure what to expect. To my surprise, I prefer this in many ways to the 2009, and am intrigued to taste more in a way that I wasn't after trying the earlier vintage.

What it comes down to is that this wine, despite superficially similar characters (presumably due to some of the same winemaking techniques), shows quite a different view of the fruit, one that is more subdued and subtle. It's also more savoury, a fact the nose immediately establishes, as some cheerfully sweet fruit is quickly swept aside by waves of stalk and oak, the latter happily less intrusive in character than in the prior vintage. It still smells home made, but it's also less chaotic, more resolved.

The palate carries these good qualities through. It's rough-hewn like its predecessor, but the fruit's calmer demeanour suggests a sophistication that, to me, is a real step up. Good flow through the middle palate, all dark fruits and spice, before tannic texture kicks in on the after palate. The structure here is very well balanced, with enough grip and astringency to please wine nerds without demanding much, if any, extra time in bottle. The fruit, darker though it is, could still use a notch more complexity. A nice, sharp finish, fruit and oak flavours carrying right through the back palate.

Can less than ideal growing conditions bring out a more interesting side to the fruit? It's hard to generalise, but I feel it's the case here.
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Eloquesta by Stuart Olsen
Price: $A28
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Clayfield Massif Shiraz 2010

2012-04-02T11:43:14Z

Simon Clayfield has many talents, but one of the most magical is an ability to make relatively high levels of alcohol completely disappear into his wines. I've seen him do it again and again, and so it is with this wine.

Not that all Clayfield wines are high in alcohol; indeed, there's a striking variability across the range and across vintages. The approach here seems to respond to flavours rather than a particular measure of ripeness, and the consistently outstanding quality of the wines validates the method. I dwell on this for a moment because it's terribly fashionable to bag high alcohol wines, but in my view it's misguided to single out one aspect of a wine and, in so doing, forget that great wines are about balance, not fashionable measures of stylistic worth.

This wine is made of 100% Shiraz grapes from Moyston. Immediately, the nose establishes firm regional credentials; this is awash with heady brown and black spice, which sits atop ripe plum fruit. The fruit's character is appropriately plum-like and very ripe; I suggest grapes were picked at a point of significant maturity. Oak is, as always with this producer, immaculately handled and matched to the fruit flavours. If it lacks the punch and detail of the first label wine, it gives up nothing by way of regionality.

The palate is delightful. It's here I find the wine's 15.1% abv hard to believe, as it's nowhere visible in the wine's structure. Indeed, this is an elegantly casual, medium bodied wine, with a dash of bright orange acid freshening the palate and velvet tannins for grip and texture. Flavours as again in the regional spice and plum fruit spectrum, oak playing a seamlessly subtle supporting role. The marvellous ease with which this unfolds in the mouth provides such sensual pleasure, it doesn't matter terribly that flavours don't smash any records for precision or intensity.

This is, above all else, a wine for sophisticated drinking. Delicious.
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Clayfield
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Swinging Bridge Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

2012-04-01T05:11:17Z

Now we're talking. Although a youngster -- somewhat gangly and awkward for now -- this wine is stylistically resolved in a way the companion Shiraz isn't.

The aroma is distinctly Cabernet but in a way I've not smelled before. The signature aromas of the varietal are there -- clean dark fruits, heady crushed leaf -- in addition to some pretty sexy cedar oak. But there's a richness to the fruit that smells distinctive, and a hint of black pepper that seems to have wandered in, happily, from an adjoining Shiraz ferment. As I mentioned, it's a bit disjointed at the moment, but I suspect it will converge on something more poised with a few months in bottle.

The palate is appropriately powerful, and what stands out most is a satisfyingly tannic structure. Three cheers for Cabernet that is not afraid to be both medium bodied and astringently bold through the finish. Flavours are very much per the nose, squeaky clean and vivid. There is perhaps a slight lack of subtlety to the flavour profile, though one might equally praise its vivacity and punch. Fabulously fine, abundant tannins descend through the after palate and become the centrepiece of the wine as it winds its way to a lengthy finish.

A distinctive and delicious wine. An ounce of extra refinement wouldn't go astray, but I like the direction this is taking.
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Swinging Bridge
Price: $A45
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Swinging Bridge Reserve Shiraz 2010

2012-03-29T10:36:04Z

I'm a bit conflicted about this wine. I previously enjoyed this producer's Sauvignon Blanc and felt it could have been pushed harder into less compromising stylistic territory. I feel very much the same about this wine, which pitches at quite a different level but which is similarly torn between distinctiveness and a desire to be crowd pleasing.

The nose shows a mix of peppery spice, slick oak and ripe, sweet red fruit. The spice is wonderfully adult and the oak sharp, which makes the character of the fruit stand out a little, as if an everyday quaffer had wandered into something altogether more elevated by mistake. It's not that the fruit is of poor quality; indeed, I feel the reverse is true. But the expression that has been coaxed of it is bouncy and sweet, a little too much so, such that the aroma profile never quite coheres.

The palate tells a similar story, though its structure provides some added delights. Acid, in particular, is fine and sharp, adding real zing to the fruit's bright flavour profile and helping it to stay within more adult parameters. I like the way this flows over the tongue, and the clean, firm articulation of its flavours is truly delicious. I just wish, though, the fruit weren't quite so eager to please. A more savoury expression would allow the brown and black spice to shine, and the delicious oak to be a more integrated part of the wine's overall flavour profile.

As with the Sauvignon Blanc, this shows genuine potential and is in many ways a delicious and interesting wine. Some finessing of the fruit's character would bring out the potential I see here.
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Swinging Bridge
Price: $A45
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Chapel Hill Chardonnay 2011

2012-03-27T08:57:30Z

To be cruel for a moment, this is most unpromising on paper. Mixing Chardonnay, affordability and more than one region doesn't usually get the wine lover's heart racing, with some justification, at least historically. And before you get excited, this isn't Giaconda Chardonnay hiding out in the McLaren Vale. However, it's a good example of the sensitivity with which this sort of mainstream wine ought to be made, and makes a case for the relevance of cheap Australian Chardonnay in a world where such wines are the very definition of undesirable.

Its trick is to combine relative restraint with a certain flow and softness. This is a watercolour wine, one whose definition is hazy but whose colours are quite charming in a lazy, easy way. On the nose, some fresh citrus alongside soft peach and rockmelon. There's a bit of nougat oak too, and perhaps some caramel. Complexity isn't a word that springs to mind; there are several flavours but to see the wine on these terms is to miss its point.

The palate has such a relaxed flow over the tongue. It's quite voluptuous and mouthfilling in a breast implant sort of way: fleshy but also a tad hollow. The fruit lacks sufficient intensity to fill out the wine's ambitious dimensions, and one is left tasting flavour at the edges and a slight absence of such in the middle. The flavours that are here, though, are balanced and easy, with more white peach and nougat, and just a hint of butterscotch.

It's far from the perfect wine and undoubtedly made to a price point. There's a sophistication of approach underlying this wine, though, which is easy to miss. How many cheap Chardonnays show vulgar dimensions, a lack of freshness, easy oak, or a reliance on malolactic fermentation? This wine avoids all these pitfalls and, in so doing, manages to be a very pleasant, pretty wine. Not bad at all.
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Chapel Hill
Price: $A16
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Dowie Doole Cali Road Shiraz 2010

2012-03-23T13:11:33Z

When a wine is identified as coming from a single vineyard, it creates an expectation of distinctiveness, of an identifiable character that goes beyond simple varietal or regional correctness. In a way, the question of what a single vineyard bottling brings (if anything) over and above a well executed blend goes to the heart of what we value in wine. It's a big topic that I won't try to do justice to with this note, but I will say that the last bottling of this wine, the 2008, was by far my favourite Dowie Doole Shiraz from that vintage precisely because it tasted different, perhaps less glossy than the Reserve, but to me more attractive for its kinks.

I've not yet tasted the 2010 Reserve, but the single vineyard bottling, rechristened Cali Road, recalls the most pleasing aspects of the previous release. Immediately, the aroma is unvarnished, showing lovely regional earth and cocoa alongside typically plump McLaren Vale plum fruit. Oak plays a prominent role too, and I might object to its volume if it weren't so typical of old school red wine from this region, and hence almost an expected element of the style. Its character is also well matched to the fruit aromas.

The palate is superbly drinkable. It enters with grace and subtlety, building to a middle palate that maxes out at medium bodied and is awash with down home red and black fruits, regional earth and salty texture. Structure begins with firm, well integrated acid and transitions to grainy, loose knit tannins through the after palate; its almost 15% alcohol is nowhere to be seen. Oak is, again, a feature of the wine, albeit one that is integrated and quite delicious. What I like most about this wine is its understatement. It's just so unforced and, at the same time, shows real personality. This is the quiet guest at a dinner party who, half way through the evening, becomes the centre of attention without once calling attention to himself.

I feel like this is McLaren Vale Shiraz stripped of modernity, where the winemaking is traditional and the resulting wine intimate and real. Absolutely my sort of wine, and very much worth the price premium over the standard Shiraz in the range.

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Dowie Doole
Price: $A35
Closure: Diam
Source: Sample

Cumulus Shiraz 2009

2012-03-21T12:12:12Z

Lovely aroma, quite composed and balanced. The fruit is mostly red and shows an attractively lithe profile, quite unlike the denser aromas our warmer climate Shiraz wines can show. There's some brown spice too, which blends well with oak that is somewhat nougat-like in character. I'm not sure I like the oak; its level is well judged but its character is just a bit too sweet and obvious for my liking. A matter of taste, though.

The palate is medium bodied and strikingly intense; there's some great fruit in here. On entry, slick red fruit and prickly spice ride atop an immensely slick mouthfeel. The middle palate sees this silicon texture expand over the tongue, and some may love the sense of luxe here. Personally, I feel the texture is one-dimensional and somewhat at odds with the angular flavour profile. The flavours become sweeter as the line progresses, due in part to oak I think. The finish is rather delicious, echoing the wine's flavours softly and for some time.

Sometimes I wish a wine were less perfect, and this is one of those times. There's some seriously characterful fruit underneath the gloss, and I kept wishing I could get a less intermediated view of it, something rougher hewn, less intrusively sweet and slick. Still, a wine of quality and interest.
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Cumulus Wines
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample