March 4, 2012 - Deep dark red color. Warm enticing black ripe cherry, plum and warm stones on the nose. Sweet dark, ripe cherry and plum fruit with licorice and tobacco in the back and broadening over the midpalate and finish. Fairly good length, powerful acidity and tannins.
January 6, 2012 - Amazingly aromatic. Decanted 45 minutes before drinking, wine opened nicely and was great with food. Still lots of fruit
November 23, 2011 - Still drank well. Reasonable fruit. Nose was ok. Color was trending brownish, and losing deep red color. Was paired with slow roasted lamb and was a good selection.
February 11, 2010 - Very good nose with complex leather and dark fruit. Tight on the palate. Slightly harsh tannins.
November 5, 2009 - All chocolate to begin, with a light Illy espresso shot. Some time in the decanter, and the introduction of a Coorong Angus rib eye gives the wine a serious wake up call and it starts to get its shit together. Some sweet tobacco threads through the mocha character, cassis builds and waves of fine grained tannins start to roll in. There’s a hint of black olive and it finishes with a savoury impression of scorched earth.
August 10, 2009 - Drank against the '99 vintage, which was slightly better. Still very enjoyable. Good body, some acidity in the finish, but OK balance.
July 2, 2009 - still has a bit of life in it, but don't hold too long.
A typical tuscan blend (80% sangiovese with some cab/merlot), tannins are almost dissolved, stll some fruit left. Seems to have the same ageing as the 1999 vintage. Nice but not great
December 12, 2004 - By this stage of the evening we were getting a bit "Molly the Monk” so I can’t say a lot about this wine except that it was enormously tannic with some chocolate and blueberry characters.
September 18, 2004 - Dark and brooding with lots of briary fruit at first. Developed some real complexity with an hours decanting. Notes of espresso(Illy of course), licorice and tar appeared and the palate was large and voluminous. There was huge extract but matched with roast leg of lamb the sweet,lush fruit came to the fore. It was only just starting to get going as we drained the last mouthful so I would suggest a few hours decanting if you're going to attack this beast as a young wine