If ever you’ve been curious enough to explore exactly what petit verdot contributes to a Bordeaux blend, here is your opportunity. Lifted by a whiff of violet, it reveals a confiture-like bouquet of mulberries, cassis, dark plums and toasty vanilla oak. Effortless, smooth and creamy, its chocolatey presence of dark berries and cherries is framed by a loose-knit grade of grainy tannin. Like most reds made 100% from this grape, it’s for the short to medium term.
Made in a contemporary white Bordeaux style with contributions from both oak and semillon, it’s mouthfilling, tangy and savoury. A scent of guava, gooseberries and lychees backed by smoky suggestions of vanilla oak and creamy yeast-derived nuances reveals a whiff of musk and dried herbs. It’s long, luscious and refined, with a wonderful depth of fruit that drives over a pithy crunchiness towards a lingering finish that hints of brine and minerals. A terrific food wine and certainly a sauvignon blanc for adults!
While Margaret River doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a region ideally suited to shiraz, Peccavi has a long history of crafting savoury, Rhone-inspired expressions of this variety of genuine class. This vintage reveals a musky perfume of cassis, raspberries and blueberries knit with smoky cedar/vanilla oak and lifted by scents of cinnamon, white pepper, violets and red flowers. Smooth and seamless, its succulent core of translucently clear fruit knits perfectly with a fresh oak interface, finishing with style and lingering flavour.
Peccavi’s top level cabernet bucks the Australian trend, for it’s based on quality and purity of expression rather than additional ripeness, oak or extract. A heady, essential perfume of cassis, redcurrants, raspberries and dark plums backed by suggestion of dried herbs, minerals and blueberries is deftly supported by gentle cedar/cignarboxyoak. It’s plush and luxuriant but emplashises purity and elegance as it glides down a pliant but chalky spine of grainy tannins, culminating in a lingering finish of remarkable length and balance.
High octane merlot indeed, from Australia’s finest label of this variety. Opulent aromas of dark cherries, plumcake and fresh vanilla oak lifted by heady aromas of red flowers simply shriek their varietal purity, while the sumptuously flavoured, long and polished palate delivers a pristine, international level of merlot expression without ever exceeding a medium to full-bodied framework. Framed by a fine grade of powdery tannins that become more firm and grainy with aeration, it’s gentle and refined, finishing long and pure. Made entirely from the lastest Bordeaux selection of merlot clones.
A punchy, ripe pinot gris whose musky bouquet reveals intense aromas of lychee, pear, apple skin and white flowers. Initially juicy and generous, it becomes more shapely down the palate, moving with crunch and texture towards a mouthwateringly brisk and zesty finish.
Pure and expressive, with a voluminous and very faintly herbal bouquet of gooseberries, passionfruit, lychees and cassis. Long and generous, with a pure, fruit-focused palate moving down a fine, powdery spine, it finishes with pleasing length of varietal flavour and refreshing acidity. Terrific value.
A finer, leaner and more austere expression of this variety from a cooler season whose bright and faintly herbal fragrance of gooseberries and lychees reveals nuances of cassis and passionfruit. Textural and shapely, with a pleasing length of restrained but lively fruit, it culminates with a lemony and fainty briny finish. Think of shellfish and tapas.
Scented with faintly musky, peppery aromas of raspberries, redcurrants, red cherries and dark plums lifted with sweet floral notes and backed by nuances of graphite and a faint meatiness. It’s supple and medium-bodied, extending a fine length of red fruits down its fine spine of drying tannins, finishing with freshness, balance and a savoury aspect.
Spicy and savoury, this is a soft, smooth and unctuous expression of a cooler climate shiraz whose bouquet steadily reveals aromas of redcurrants, raspberries, blackberries and fresh cesary oak backed by faintly herbal, menthol-like notes. Moderate in weight, its structure takes time to emerge, but provides adequate balance and composition for medium-term cellaring. Charming and elegant, with a mouthwatering finish.
A youthful and measured sangiovese whose fragrance of blood plums, redcurrants and eastern spices precedes a youth, restrained palate of medium weight. It’s stylish and fine-grained, with a pleasing length of faintly sour-edged berry/cherry/plum fruit that is wrapped in a typically brisk acidity and will build richness with bottle-age.