Elegant flowery aromas with some pear fruit don't prepare you for the impressively intense and concentrated flavors of brioche and apple. Memorable stuff.

Bready-stemmy nose. Juicy flavors that finish with some bitterness.

All funk, no fruit. Non-representative bottle.

Dark plummy red. Candy-fruit character gives an impression of artificiality. Decent, but comes off like a generic Languedoc or Falesco Vitiano.

Medium garnet-red. Organic nose is chock full of terroirish minerality, with some tobacco in there as well. Taut acids keep the berry fruit and earth flavors in line. Excellent expression of attractive rusticity. My first encounter with Prieto Picudo, but it won't be my last.

Medium dark violet-red. Oddly inexpressive nose shows a little high-toned character but that's about it. Sweet entry, short but nicely balanced.

Medium red with a salmon rim. Burnt briar and ripe but restrained fruit on the nose. Nicely dry, with a decent midpalate. Very serviceable Zin.

Dark plummy red. Sweet raspberry fruit has a hint of bubblegum. Nice fruit-acid balance on the palate, but on the simple side.

Medium dark red-garnet. More traditionally styled nose features ripe and sour cherries. Fairly broad in texture, but most memorable for a crescendo of mouthwatering acid in the mouth.

Surprisingly evolved light-medium garnet. Soy-doused meat, raspberry, and cherry aromas. Nicely juicy, with a floral element that develops in the mouth.

Medium violet. Fresh, even chlorinated nose is followed by a palate of mostly acid. Needs fruit.

Virtually opaque reddish purple. Ultraripe cranberry complemented by subtle oak on the nose. A dry attack is followed by increasingly intense, extracted blackberry fruit. Delicious right now.

Light-medium garnet-red. A little closed, giving up just a single note of strawberry. More power evident in the mouth, with fair concentration and no heaviness. Give it some time.

Dark purple-red. Ripe nose features prominent meat and mineral. Flavors are even more mineral-driven. Decently structured, but lacks a little delineation.

Medium maroon. Warm aromas of chocolatey currant and mint. Lightly extracted yet surprisingly good structure, with more sweet chocolate flavors.

Inky red-black. Shockingly ashen nose takes time to give up any fruit, in this case blackberry. Virtually no heat despite 16% ABV. Sweet fruit flavors compete with more ash, although the competition ends quickly as all the flavor peters out.

Medium garnet-red. Tobacco and roasted berry aromas. Quite sweet, plush, and smooth; this definitely fits the modern Aussie mold in terms of those aspects.

Dark purply red. Nice floral lift to the ripe cherry/plum fruit, with a hint of well-measured oak. Vanilla-edged fruit flavors present with very good concentration and are unencumbered by heaviness.