More of an introductory take on the Grenache grape from Yalumba, and given the price you can find it for, well worth your exploration.
It smells and tastes of raspberry compote, dark cherries and brambly fruits with hints of tar and soil. Generously sweet, however it avoids overtly confected characters. Silky and spicy with just a rub of dusty tannin and a little tea leaf. Blessedly free of obvious oak interference. Top notch weeknight drinking. 89
Region: Barossa
Alcohol: 13.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $21.95
Tasted: October 2013
This is smart, and has performed well most of this year on the bench. Score is accurate, though outside the regular conservatives, many I think still miss the point of your’s and TWF’s calibration. Funny how in the American land of hype, they still recognise that high 80s for a value price is really good, whereas in this country where we criticise American hyperbole as a career, people ask about misgivings and faults when a wine scores 88-89!
A bit of discussion on Twitter today surrounding scoring. Nick Stock bemoaning a certain Champagne Guide’s high scores (no, I do not know which one and am not going to take a guess), Jamie Goode stating that is was a specifically Australian affliction (which I think is rubbish) and Max Allen fighting to abolish scores altogether without offering any alternative for assessing quality (I fell asleep before I could think anything). I do hope score inflation is a thing of the past and I do hope consumers are beginning to understand that, within context, a score in the mid to high eighties is not an indictment of the wine. It certainly isn’t meant to be in this case.