94 Points, James Suckling
Winemaker’s Notes
The wine presents dark red and purple hues with classic aromas of black currant, cardamom, graphite, vanilla, leather and cocoa powder. Well-structured, vivid and elegant, showcasing inviting dark plum, black raspberry, and espresso along the palate culminating in a satisfying, long finish.
Winemaking
The fruit was hand-harvested in the cool morning hours and brought to the winery in half-ton bins. The clusters were sorted using a double sorting system, first sorted by hand. The fruit then ran through a small de-stemmer before the individual berries were sorted to ensure that the ideal grapes were chosen. These berries were delivered to a small open-top fermenter where there was a period of resting on skins. Warm fermentation temperatures were encouraged along with gentle cap maceration to achieve the desired color and structure for the wine before an extended maceration time on skins prior to final pressing. The wine was transferred directly to barrel for 19 months of maturation.
Thirteen percent of the sorted berries used in this blend was fermented in French oak barrels to add layers of complexity to the wine. After fermentation, the wine remained in those same barrels for aging.