(2016) Meaty and balsamic on the nose, a touch of classic green nuance to the Cab fruit, but such a flood of super sweet deep black fruit. Great creamy sweetness and utterly delicious, arguably more obvious than the 2010, but yummy.
(2016) Bloody iron oxide, meaty and has cedar and graphite notes, moving through to a massively sweet palate, layered with chocolate and mint-touched cassis fruit. Still has real juiciness, and a lovely Bordeaux-style refinement.
(2016) Oak is one third each of new, 2nd and 3rd use barrela. Juicy and lightly minty, with some chocolate and earthy creamy notes. It has pretty big tannins, chewy and dense, a spicy and balanced finish.
(2016) This unusual 'icon' Petite Sirah comes from an old pergola vineyard of table grapes, grafted to Petite Sirah. It has a fabulous nose, the lift and kirsch-like aromatics, lots of cassis and coffee, obviously plenty of oak, but the prettiness of the fruit comes through. The palate has huge smoothness, with massive grippy tannins, and loads of black fleshy fruit. Delicious and massive, but it is a really impressive wine. Note stockist quoted is for the 2010 vintage at time of writing.
(2016) Pleasing bloody touches to the black fruit and the earthy meaty qualities again, I like the structure and the solid tannins which are grippy but fine. The fruit stays quite substantial and has the nice blend of sweetness and grippy, meaty structure. 2011 currently showing on Majestic's website.
(2016) Less meaty, more lifted and lightly floral compared to the 2012, really ripe and intense, a great core of acidity and tannin to this. There's ripeness almost an agen prune juicy darkness. This has the juicy sweet intensity, even if I slightly prefer the 2012.
(2016) A blend of Syrah 52%, Carignan 27%, Malbec 21%. Big, plush and plummy nose, through the mask of a little recent bottling reduction. Quite lifted too, some floral and violetty notes again. Rich and chocolaty palate, that bit of drying tannin grip, but lovely and finishes fruit dry and spice. It is not in UK at time of writing, but would retail around £30.
(2016) A blend of 65% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Carmenere first made in 1997. A delightful graphite and cedar quality to this, again a bit of meaty and bloody concentration, and the oak adding a dark, rich gloss a touch of background mint. The palate has a real juicy edge to the deep, meaty fruit. I cannot see a UK stockist at time of writing, but RRP is £24.99
(2016) Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Malbec and Syrah, this has that touch of mint and menthol to the cassis, quite stongly dominated by the Cabernet, the palate so smooth, so minty, with really plush and seductive tannins, it has a fine sandy tannin quality, good acidity and a lovely framework, a structure that the sweet fruit drapes over beautifully.
