Community Tasting Notes 7

• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 points

  April 4, 2021 - Coravined a glass for HMC and myself before Easter dinner. Put the bottle back on the shelf and wine came pouring out of the small vintage needle puncture in the cork. The cork refused to seal even the smaller vintage sized hole in it. Wasn't about to stand the bottle up and sit it in the cellar to go bad in a day or two slow oxing, so just pulled the cork and we enjoyed it through the evening. The cork itself was the shortest I've ever removed from a bottle in my life. No saturation to it and it seemed to have plenty of spring/life left but it just wouldn't seal the hole. The wine took all of 45 min to an hour to open up, fill out and drink beautifully. It really improved over the course of 6+ hours until being finished late at night. This wine, while a year younger than the '16 LaPelle, is drinking far in excess of it. By hour 6, this wine is smooth and perfectly integrated....pencil shavings, briar on the nose, slightly tart bright red cherry fruit with some red raspberry compote as well. Perhaps a bit of nutmeg on the nose and the palate as well. WOTN to me, no question. Ready to drink now with a nice decant but can go for many years.

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• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 points

  May 20, 2020 - Finished off the bottle after the thin needle coravin pour a couple nights ago.....no evidence of any slow ox bleed since then. If anything, it seemd to take an hour longer to open up once the cork was pulled. Nose remained reticent and the wine itself felt like a somewhat linear and young BDX with tight fruit, acid and tannins. Toward the last glass it began to sing again, but I'm going to take a point off my score from the previous night, 96 now. Exquisite but not aged enough for the BDX crowd. Unfortunately, this is not luscious, upfront, juicy Cali cab fruit either, so it may disappoint that crowd as well. A very, very nice wine that needs the right audience to be given its due acclaim. Kudos to Chris Carpenter for his work on this one.

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• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 97 points

  May 17, 2020 - Seven months more in bottle since last tasting......Coravin pour after a great seafood dinner, using the thinner vintage needle to see if I can prevent a slow ox bleed off, on this bottle. At 56 degrees it's nose is quite closed with just a hint of briar/greenery to it. Initial taste is pretty astringent dark fruit with grainy tannins.
  
  At one hour in the glass, warming to room temp of 74 degrees this wine begins to shine. Dark crimson in the glass, a swirl gets you a hint of black licorice, sweet tobacco and a slightly sweet flowery component. Front side has great red currant and other black fruits. If you sip and swirl around in your mouth a good 30 seconds, you unlock even sweeter, juicier fruit with a nice acidic backbone. This is a quality blend of fruit that is both unique and a bit mesmerizing at the same time. There may be a certain umami character but it's more than that......there's the usual herbal qualities like sage, that emerge with more time, some leather and it takes at least 2 hours for any of the eucalyptus to show itself on the nose and it seems more restrained than before, the grainy tannins smooth out...late blackberry pie emerges on the ending. 3 hours in, a little red cherry shows up in the fruit. This is a really nice wine and a fun ride. Plenty of time to go with this one.

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• Matt Scott Likes this wine: 95 points

  November 17, 2019 - Bramble berry, black cherry, ground stone, vanilla, eucalyptus and flower shop. Full-bodied and luxurious. So much strut and freshness. An exaggerated finish and lovely finesse. This will cellar very well. Drink now -.

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• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 points

  October 14, 2019 - Enjoyed at the Cardinale Estate last week along with other great wines. A little lighter crimson red in the glass than most deep dark purple heavy Napa cab bombs these days. A wonderful eucalyptus/camphor nose reminiscent of a glorious Heitz Martha's vineyard cab. This is a blend of Cab and Shiraz sourced from the vineyard famous for the legendary Penfold's Grange. It is drinking well now but still somewhat young and I have a feeling it will go up a point or maybe two with more time in bottle. It does not have the over the top fruit density that many straight modern Napa cabs do, it's a nicely balanced and more refreshing cab blend I am happy to have in my cellar. Fans of Martha's Vineyard in Napa will surely like this.

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Pro Reviews 2

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2015
• Type Red
• Producer Hickinbotham
• Varietal Cabernet-Shiraz Blend
• Designation The Peake
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Australia
• Region South Australia
• SubRegion Fleurieu
• Appellation McLaren Vale

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 150 (65%)
• Consumed 80 (35%)

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