(2018) A blend of 50% Graciano, 40% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon grown at 650 metres altitude, this spends 12 months in barrique, 90% French and 10% American. Dense and tightly furled, the nose doesn't give much initially, revealing some meat stock and savoury plum. In the mouth the picture is somewhat the same: meaty, dark, brooding, spicy with a big tannic framework. For me just a little overdone.
(2018) A blend of 50% Garnacha, 40% Syrah and 10% Merlot that spends six months in barrel, 80% French and 20% American. It is a dark and meaty style of wine, but there is a little more light and shade aromatically than in the DV+, spices and red plum, a touch of red liquorice too. In the mouth the sweet ripeness of the fleshy fruit fills the mouth, back-filled with savoury dark oak, and the tannins, alcohol and acid a touch balsamic and leathery, but powerful and persistent.
(2018) From a small plot of Syrah planted at 650 metres on limestone and sand, this is aged 16 months in 500-litre barrels. The nose is fairly tight, dense, mysterious, with meat-stock and balsamic notes, the fruit savoury and equally dark. In the mouth it is a slightly unrelenting style, which seems to mark this house, the wines rather big, extracted and tannic, masking the ripe and plush black fruit that is there in a cloak of dustiness, and slightly agressive structure. It strikes me that all of the DV wines could just lighten up a bit to great effect.
(2015) Warren succinctly describes this as "Marmalade in a glass." Made in Malaga, the base is Moscatel, aromatized with wild orange peel that has been steeped in brandy. It's intriguing with its glowing amber colour and highly aromatic nose, Cointreau-like to an extent, but a little more delicate with the herb and floral notes of the Muscat. Fortified to only 15% abv it is not at all spirity, with an unctuous slippery mouth-feel and orange and delicate toffee balanced against fresh wine acidity, leaving it sticky and sweet, but beautifully moreish. A banker for orange desserts, but I had a glass with a panettone bread and butter pudding and it was perfect. 50cl.
(2015) The colour of mahogany with a hint of ruby, it is extraordinary stuff: one of the thickest and sweetest wines I have tasted outside of the extremely rare and expensive Tokaji 'Essencia'. The aromas are exactly those of the most mature and unctuous Christmas pudding, and the engine oil-thick slick of wine on the tongue is super-sweet, with real depth of flavour and enough acidity clinging on to keep it from being simply cloying. Marvellous stuff, and a little would go a long way round the dinner table. 50cl.
