Deep, bright red-purple colour with a dry-spice bouquet, featuring clovers, pepper, clean leather and terracotta, the style being intensely savoury and drying at the finish, thanks to emphatic tannins. A distinctive style of full-bodied grenache, and very good. Points: 95/100
This is sourced from a vineyard alongside the High Sands Block and planted in 1946. It’s a bright medium bodied wine exuding so much life and energy. Interestingly no oak has been used and the wine fermented and matured only in ceramic eggs. It’s an elegant style of great purity and power. A fine minerally acidity will ensure cellaring potential. Points: 95/100
From 1946-planted vines in Block 30, adjacent to the High Sands Block; destemmed, crushed and fermented in 675L ceramic eggs; pressed after about 150 days then returned to the eggs for a total of 14 months' maturation. Taut and sinewy, both a function of making and the year that was, this is a coiled spring of dried flowers, cranberry, raspberry leaf tea, cherry, pomegranate and dusty white pepper spicing. The pedigree of place, venerable vines, impeccable viticultural stewardship and fine-tuned making suggest this will have a long and exciting future, but it needs a few years to unlock all its mysteries. As it stands, it is a thrilling bottle, if a little stern at present. I have a feeling the score may tick up with time. Points: 96/100
From 1946-planted vines in Block 30, adjacent to the High Sands Block; destemmed, crushed and fermented in 675L ceramic eggs; pressed after about 150 days then returned to the eggs for a total of 14 months' maturation. Taut and sinewy, both a function of making and the year that was, this is a coiled spring of dried flowers, cranberry, raspberry leaf tea, cherry, pomegranate and dusty white pepper spicing. The pedigree of place, venerable vines, impeccable viticultural stewardship and fine-tuned making suggest this will have a long and exciting future, but it needs a few years to unlock all its mysteries. As it stands, it is a thrilling bottle, if a little stern at present. I have a feeling the score may tick up with time. Points: 96/100
The concrete and the clay beneath my feet, begins to crumble, but love will never die. Gee, you can really smell and taste the maturation vessel in this wine, which I like, because it appeals to my love of Italian wines and their tannic structure. Red fruit, dried flowers (including chamomile), aniseed and mint, tamarind, almond meal and fresh rhubarb, cranberry flavour and acidity. It is medium-bodied, dry and very firm, but does have bright red fruit of some succulence in with all that dusty terracotta stuff. The finish is long and kind of bony, but it does carry perfume as it closes. This may be a little too much for some. but I love it. Such a fine and distinctive wine. Points: 96/100
Vibrant ruby and bright purple tones shine in the glass. Raspberry, dried clay and anise spice aromatics. Palate sings with red fruits, Turkish Delight and a mélange of North African spices. Tannins are fine and sandy but have great persistence and power so the whole palate is carried to a prodigiously long finish. There’s so much to discover here that you’ll want to sit in quiet introspection when drinking it. Points: 95/100
