Community Tasting Note

• Dr S Likes this wine: 94 points

  January 22, 2023 - Apart from knowing the variety, I tasted this blind, a sample provided by my fraternal komrade. Two things struck me instantly. One, that it was bloody good.
  
  And two, that I’d tasted it before. But was it a Paralian thanks to the sandy, almost salty characters on the nose and palate? Or did the close to sweetly scented blood orange and red fruits point to Eperosa? The lite medium bodied palate brought back the excellent In Praise of Shadows, and its maker’s wines from Aphelion.
  
  Of course, I got it wrong on all those counts, but did pick it as McLaren Vale over Barossa. And here’s the thing. It’s multiple personalities reveal a multifaceted wine of real class and complexity. The nose takes you on a merry ride, teasing the senses (and memory). The palate’s thrilling. It glides across the mouth, veils of silk but with just the right touch of sandy grip and tingling acid to keep it on point. Spice, black tea and saline notes keep the raspberry and cranberry in check, with a hint of beetroot in there too.
  
  For mine, inherently more interesting than ithe much more expensive 186 ($45 v $100). Not quite the depth of the pricier sibling but much more complex.
  
  I usually rate a wine with a definite eye to its ability to mature. In this case, it doesn’t matter. This is a great drop now. And to answer Komrade Kappelle’s question below, my sense is it doesn’t quite have the fruit weight or length to go long distance, but up to five years should see it take on more savoury characters - if you can keep your mits off it. Salud!

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3 Comments

• Rote Kappelle commented:

  1/22/23, 5:02 PM - And this, comrades, is why you should dial in to Dr S. He gets things that I never will - the blood orange is spot on and as soon as I read it, I thought 'Oh. Of course.'

• BPej commented:

  1/23/23, 8:55 PM - I had one of these last week myself and thought it was great. It just needed a bit of air to subdue the lolly frog thing a little. Came off as a touch too sweet but some airtime fixed that right up.

• Dr S commented:

  1/23/23, 9:10 PM - I saw it after it had been open for a day or so. I can imagine it opening with those (dread) lolly / confectionery characters. There was an echo of them there when I tasted it but reined in by savoury/sandy notes. Smart wine ah!

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