Tasting notes:
A warm vintage has produced a wine of excellent dark fruit concentration. Aromatics of dark cherry, rich forest fruits and spicy undertones. The palate shows good weight and texture with fine acidity giving balance and poise. Ageing in French oak (25% new) and malolactic fermentation have resulted in a complex, well-balanced wine with a generous palate and long finish.
Review:
94 points, Cameron Douglas, CamDouglasMS.com
An elegant and enticing wine with a core bouquet of ripe, dark red berry fruits, a fine toasty wood layer, roses and dry stone mineral qualities. There’s a fine savoury quality too that can only come from site and ripe fruit. Dry, savoury, fruity, highly textured and delicious. Still youthful with a taut mouthfeel easily contrasted by a core of fruit and freshness. Fruit flavours mirror the nose with a natural earthy, mineral-flinty and dried herb quality. Best drinking from late 2022 through 2029+.
4.5 Star, Michael Coopers Buyer’s Guide
Offering very good value, the generous, ageworthy 2020 vintage (4.5*) was estate-grown at Waipara, harvested from 20 year-old vines, and matured for 16 months in French oak barriques (22 per cent new). Full-coloured, with a fragrant, spicy bouquet, it is mouthfilling, sweet-fruited, savoury and supple, with balanced acidity and strong, berryish, spicy flavours, showing considerable complexity. Best drinking 2023+.