I was lucky enough to depart from my time at Lake’s Folly with a wonderful selection of older wines of the estate. This is my first dip into that stash, and what an excellent start to the exploration.

At first, this gives a shockingly young impression; primary fruit ringing clearly, pure red berries at the core of a seductive aroma profile that has become quite elaborate with bottle age. Turned earth, second hand books, mushroom, spice. It’s seamless and savoury and changeable with air, shifting its emphasis this way and that, never becoming a comprehensively old wine to smell, though its tertiary life looms heavily.

In the mouth, bright with purple flowers, red fruits and acid, light to medium bodied, savouriness creeping in from all sides. Although this remains structured, it has the mellowness of an older red wine, with a silky smooth mouthfeel and an easy flow down the line. Sweet tannins are still abundant and fine, blanketing the after palate and adding persistence to the wine’s line. As old wines will sometimes do, this started to slowly fall apart after a couple of hours, acid poking out a bit more, fruit weight diminishing.

Wines like this are why I don’t score.

Lake’s Folly
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Source: Gift