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Displaying results 0 - 10 of 26

(2023) Barossa fruit is sourced from across the region and the wine matured for 12 months in a selection of French, Hungarian and American oak. A vibrant crimson colour, it is rather subdued on the nose compared to the big trophy wines here, but there is elegance, red berries and redcurrants, a light smoky or ashy edge giving a savoury hint. In the mouth it is a very nicely composed wine, with plenty of fruit, medium-body, and enough structural tannin and acidity to offset the supple fruits that dominate. The oak is worn very lightly, adding a little roundness and smoothness. 2021 vintage in Waitrose priced £12.99 at time of review.
(2023) This Barossa blend was matured for 11 months in 19% new French and Hungarian oak hogsheads and barriques, the rest in older French, American and Hungarian barrels. There is a classic eucalypt note here, with rich, spiced plum compote fruit. The cream and coffee of the oak sits nicely in the picture. In the mouth it's the spiciness that makes an impressions first, the dense fruit sweet and velvetty. Tannins are creamy and the acid adds a refreshing cherryish bittersweet tang. This is superior easy-drinking, a perfect summer barbie stuff.
(2023) There's also 12% Barbera in this Italianate blend, picked relatively early, the wine co-fermented with wild yeasts. It was aged in older oak for three months before bottling. Creamy black berries infuse the nose, hints of spice and chocolate, but a brightness too. The palate has plenty of bite from plum-skin acid and tannin, dry and savoury, the acid forms a very direct core through plummy red fruits. Good length.
(2022) From the Limestone Coast, a straightforward proposition in the shape of a Shiraz and Cabernet blend, with spicy and plummy aromas, smoothed by vanilla and spiked with pepper. In the mouth, a ripe mouthfull of black fruit flavours, rounded by oak and while the combination of tannins and alcohol make it a little hot for my taste, it delivers a soild mouthful of beefy red at a fair price.
(2022) Caitlin Brown is the winemaker for this estate, which the Brown family took over in 2005, the estate having been established by David Wynn in the 1960s, a pioneer of the elevated High Eden region of the Barossa. At 550m above sea level, Mountadam is the highest estate in South Australia with harvest up to a month later than in the lower Eden and Barossa Valleys. What an absolutely delightful wine this is - especially at £10 a bottle - with its pummeled mulberry, sweet, sweet fleshy dark fruit, crack of fresh black pepper and fleeting highlights of violet. The palate has that same glorious sweet fruit abundance with some cocoa supporting, and seamless tannin and acid integration. Watch the video for more information.
(2021) So the pun is obvious and needs no explanation for wine-pages visitors, this blends old vine Shiraz with Viognier, mostly from McLaren Vale, the wine matured in French and American hogsheads for 12 months. Highly aromatic, lots of buoyant black fruit aromas and a little floral and pastille quality is very attractive. Big dry tannins, but lovely fruit here and a long finish.
(2021) Hollick is one of the great names of the Coonawarra region of South Australia, famed mostly for its distinctive 'terra rossa' soils and Cabernet Sauvignon in particular. This is a wine that underwent an almost miraculous transformation with a little air and a little time: on first pouring a tasting sample there was a dustiness and rawness on the nose, some cedar and a suggestion of eucalyptus, but it felt shy on fruit. However, I suggest decanting this wine for a good couple of hours before drinking, as returning to it next day the fruit was much more to the fore, plum and cassis, sweet fruit building on the mid-palate. After initial misgiving, the wine seemed to blossom and become more smooth and fleshy. In the end, a very pleasing bottle. Note the stockist quoted has this on offer at £9.99 at time of review. Watch the video for more information.
(2021) A blend of fruit from the Taylor family's vineyards in the Clare Valley and from the Limestone Coast. There's a plummy character on the nose, a little wisp of something herby and lifted too. The full-on sweetness and chocolate density of the wine surprises as it hits the palate, a mocha coffee raft of black fruit flavours, super-ripe and mouth-filling. Plush is the word for this wine, with its creamy and generous tannins and acids, it's for immediate pleasure I'd say, as long as you like that uncompromisingly ripe and large-scaled style.
(2021) Ten months in a combination of American and French oak for this wine, which I'd certainly describe as classic Barossa Shiraz. That's to say it is bountiful and crammed with fruit, but it absolutely does not lack in freshness or vibrant personality. There's elegant, floral lift and raspberry brightness to sit against the creamy depth of vanilla-infused berries. In the mouth it has a racy acidity, firm, slick tannins and loads of almost mindlessly pleasurable chocolate-smoothed dark berries. Watch the video for more information and food-matching ideas.
(2021) This is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, aged 15 months French and American oak. There's something a little bit nutty on the nose here, tobacco-spicy and touch herbal that proceeds typical blackcurrant aromas of the Cabernet. On the palate a big, sweet surge of black fruit, really intense and concentrated, fruit skin bite, firm tannins and keen black plum acids in a powerhouse style, but retains excellent freshness too.
Displaying results 0 - 10 of 26