{diam, 12%} [Graeme] Noir and Meunier make up 37% and 16% of this and give it its pale salmon-like hue. It smells a little like roses too, strawberries, with a touch of yeast. Pleasant, if well-developed. Sadly, despite persistent and fine creamy bubbles, the palate is dull and muted in flavour. It’s not obviously faulty (perhaps storage was an issue?), but at any rate it finishes very short indeed, despite its initial promise of medium weight, and sits almost entirely on the tip of the tongue as well. Not very impressive.

{screwcap, 13.5%} [Gordon] A winery which seems to hit the jackpot every now and then with its semillons, but otherwise flies under the radar a bit. No decant. Initially a bit rubbery and reductive, later with mulberry fruit and some typical Hunter earthiness, although hardly mature. Medium weight on the palate, with initially rich, plummy fruit flavours. But the savoury dry aspect comes to the fore, with lots of fine dusty tannins and medium acidity. Medium length finish with good presence along the tongue. A bit more reserved and rustic than the 14 Margan served alongside. Will happily keep a good many years yet with hope of improvement.

{screwcap, 13.5%} [Greg] Rich, ripe nose of blackberry fruit, with an iodine and ink character, although the hunter earth isn’t entirely suppressed. A medium effort all round – dusty tannins, acidity, and general weight on the palate. Plenty of clean blackcurrant fruit and some earth, an even flow over tongue, and a medium length palate all blend nicely. Still a very young offering from a truly great Hunter vintage. Respecting the history (minus the brett) but in modern garb. Nice now, with years to go. A bit more fruity and overt than the 14 McLeish it was tasted beside.

{screwcap, 14%} [DavidM] Deep ruby colour, developing nose of rich chocolate, oak and black grape aromas. Less obviously fruity than you may expect from McLaren Vale. The palate is similar, with choco/vanilla qualities, subdued dark fruit; it’s not exactly primary, with low/medium dusty tannins and low/medium acidity. Medium weight, soundly even palate and a medium length finish. And yet it seems rather tight still, and in need of much time to emerge properly. Another five years will help. Tidy but not spectacular.

{cork, 14.5%} [Stephen] Aging garnet. Fumey nose of blackcurrant essence. The palate has super-ripe, extracted, but aging blue fruit flavours; not baked or raisined, but still heavy and extracted. A sybaritic wine, like slumping back into a velvet sofa; low/medium acidity, low chalky tannins, medium weight – would be more but it seems just a little patchy on the palate before the medium length but plush, and slightly warm finish. I’ll bet the alcohol is higher than labelled. A mellow wine ready to drink now.

{screwcap, 14%} [Gordon] Deep garnet red. Rich nose, hardly developed. Aromas of liquorice, blackberry, plum. A touch of black pepper. Polished though. Balanced and pure medium/full-bodied palate, fruity with black berries and subtle French oak. Medium powdery tannins and medium acidity provide a fine structure. Polished, even palate with a medium/long finish. Too young to drink now – a wine of real class. Instructive to drink alongside the 2008 and note the glacial development apparent.

) {screwcap, 14%} [DavidH] Close to a carbon copy of the 2013; with a similar, if slightly gentler nose of blackberry and plush cedary oak. Big – medium/full-bodied – but sophisticated palate, with well-judged ripe blackberry fruit, medium dusty tannins, effective but unobtrusive acid, and a medium/long finish. Just a little mellower than its younger sibling but cut very much from the same cloth. More structure than many of the wines produced from McLaren Vale in the 90s and 00s, for examples. Even at thirteen, there’s no rush to drink this in the next five years at least.

{cork, 13.7%} [Graeme] Double decanted at 5pm and smelt iffy. Three hours late seemed little better. Fungal and manky! Not obviously corked, or oxidised. Dirty somehow. Stewed, baked fruit on the turn. Medium dusty tannins, medium weight. But minimal fruit flavour – all indeterminate, even a bit acetic. Dirty leather. Short finish. Well under par. Ullage perfect, cork looked immaculate. My cellar for the last twenty years; conditions aren’t perfect, but not bad enough to cook this. Ah well.

{screwcap, 14.5%} [Glenn] Seemed very youthful indeed after the preceding wines. Big, easy ripe fruit with a warm plumminess. On the palate had a bit more dimension and depth to the ripe and perfumed deep red fruit than perhaps the nose suggested. Medium weight, with low/medium finely chalky tannins and lowish acidity. Medium finish, even palate. Pretty decent. In the $40 range, fair value too.

{screwcap, 14.5%} [Greg] Late addition from Fix courtesy of Greg. Juicy ripe blackberry, but with a sandy note of faint white pepper. Strict blackberry fruit, with a chocolate hint. Not sweet though, always savoury-accented. Nose and palate in sync. Medium acid, medium chalky tannins. Quite oaky perhaps – often the Thomas style, I’m finding. Even palate, medium/long finish. A little anonymous at this young age, but will be lovely in a decade. At ~$30 from the winery, the bargain wine of the night.

{500ml, screwcap, 15.5%} [Graeme] The fortifying spirit is certainly obvious here, among the vanilla and burnt caramel aromas. The palate offers the same, with oranges, marzipan and nougat, but always in a lifted and warm manner. Still there’s plenty of interest in the flavours to give this complexity in a medium/dry, full-bodied sort of way. Warm but balanced, with a medium long finish that doesn’t cloy. Nice effort.