June 4, 2023 - Leaf Day - cork sound with little ingress/virtually no loss of wine - still a full fill. When the cork was pulled I could smell a ripe, rich, earthy bouquet immediately expressed from the bottle. Double decanted with little sediment. In the glass it’s showing some development with a browning opaque core extending to a lightly browned rim. On the nose (right after decanting) there is some funk along with cigar, tobacco box, licorice, dried herbs and dried red and blue fruit. On the palate there’s old leather, tobacco, plum, prune, and dried red flowers. The tannins are still very evident but fully resolved and the acidity is medium. The finish is long with the florals, dried fruit. Leather and tobacco continuing.
October 4, 2020 - Smooth, plenty of fruit (blackberry, plum)
March 17, 2018 - Das gerade richtige Alter des Weins. Schokolade. Anis. Im Geruch auch etwas Pfeffer. Dazu kommt eine ganz leichte Note von Blaubeeren. Ein vielschichtiger Wein mit ganz vielen Verwendungsmöglichkeiten.
April 26, 2017 - Fantastic wine for the price. Well balanced with lucious red fruit and acidity. Some secondary cracked pepper and anise.
November 15, 2015 - Revisited this wine after 3 more years in cellar and it has improved nicely. More rounded and balanced. Hard to believe that I only payed $13 a bottle for this 4 years ago.
March 30, 2014 - New world, as others have made note, but shows some classy old-world sense especially in its dry mineral and iron finish. Smooth balance of dark and red fruits up front.
September 30, 2013 - A real lazy Sunday ... I wrote up a couple of wine tastings and the wife caught up on some of her paperwork - then we watched Black Rain (with Michael Douglas) - I was shocked to learn my wife had never seen it (where has she been?). Then we made an special early Sunday dinner of nachos ... I had already picked out my wine for tonight on Friday (it was my back up bottle in case a certain synthetic closed wine turned out to be faulty) ... a bottle of Acustic: a Spanish blend made from Garnacha and Samso (aka Carignan) from the Montsant region. The last bottle I had of this was back in 2010, and I enjoyed it then but I probably enjoyed it more tonight. Back in 2010 it was one bottle out of 6 poured on an evening with friends and some real hit and miss wines ... tonight it was all by its lonesome and paired with a delightful plate of corn chips, cheese, ground chicken, onions, peppers, salsa and sour cream. Rich and plummy with an elegant hint of spice on the nose; the palate delivered black cherry, hints of vanilla, blackberry and a dusting of pepper and clove. It finished with some mocha and licorice on the last sip, about an hour and a half later. 10 years ago it was all fruit, but now it had developed into something much more enjoyable.
September 21, 2013 - Just not a lot going on in this wine. I generally like this producer, but really did not find anything compelling in this wine.
July 8, 2012 - Very good. A touch young. Could have aged several years yet.
June 17, 2012 - Nice rich nose--spice, dark fruit, earthy. Beautiful deep dark color. A little tight initially, but opened up nicely over an hour or so. Much, much better wine after it opens. Complex, smoke spice and oak, with delicious red berry fruit. Did not detect significant heat. I really enjoyed this wine and as others have suggested, will wait another 6 months to try the next bottle....just to see how this evolves. No problems drinking more now though. Excellent QPR.