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Tasmania |
1 |
99 (JS) |
$662.00 |
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James Suckling (99)This is a wine we have not yet seen from Tolpuddle. It has such well-curated complexity and whole-bunch influence (40%) sits in the sweet spot. It is concentrated, yet so elegant and the vivid freshness that pervades every aspect of the nose and palate is striking. Aromas of red fruit, such as raspberry, strawberry, red cherry and red plum are framed in spice and fragrance. The palate has such impressive definition and clarity and the tannins are so detailed, fine and clear-cut. Concentrated red and darker cherries are fleshy, yet elegantly focused, and the acidity laces it all up so clearly. So drinkable now and for a decade at least. Screw cap.
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Tasmania |
1 |
98 (DC) |
$571.00 |
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Decanter (98)A longer, cooler vintage has allowed the sum of all the distinctive site components to marry in ideal balance. It’s all there - pretty aromatics; plush, rounded fruit flavours with some stalky grip adding play to the texture, and a cloak of minerality providing an intriguing counterpoint as fine tannins grip at the finish. It’s alluring, enticing you back to keep reading its complexity.
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South Australia |
2 |
98 (WA) |
$1,580.00 |
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Wine Advocate (98)The 2012 RunRig is silky and seamless, akin the 2010 tasted alongside. RunRig was not made in the 2011 vintage, due to the cold and wet conditions (which did suit some varieties, and some terrific wines were made). Aromatically, the wine is all about garden roses and tapenade, roasted meat and sweet summer tomatoes. This is a beautiful wine. 15.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
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South Australia |
1 |
96+ (WA) |
$1,100.00 |
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Wine Advocate (96+)The 2015 RunRig is dark and brooding, with tar and resin, asphalt and tapenade. In the mouth, the fruit is sweet, feathered by vanilla pod and medjool date, mulberry, blood plum and sweet licorice. The length is phenomenally long, and the future will be just as long. The wine is so closed at this stage, and yet it has all the hallmarks required for long aging. 15% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
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South Australia |
1 |
96 (VN) |
$1,330.00 |
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Vinous (96)Inky ruby color. Expansive aromas of dark fruit liqueur, incense, candied flowers, Indian spices and vanilla. Has a smoky mineral quality that gains strength as the wine opens up. Fleshy, sweet and broad on the palate, offering impressively concentrated yet lively blackcurrant, boysenberry and violet pastille flavors that are lifted and sharpened by a smoky mineral flourish. Smooth, seamless and appealingly sweet on an extremely long, floral-dominated finish that"s framed by suave, well-knit tannins.
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South Australia |
2 |
99 (WA) |
$1,160.00 |
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Wine Advocate (99)The 2018 RunRig is perfectly eloquent of the 2018 vintage. It was warm and dry, and the reds produced both in Barossa and Eden Valleys were of very high quality. Here, the 2018 could be stylistically compared to 2016, however the 2018 offers tremendous chisel and definition of both the tannins and the nuanced fruit profile. This is a brilliantly polished and sleek wine that, while approachable and ready for drinking now, offers none of the gracious complexity that it will no doubt develop with patient cellaring. Should you wish to see the potential of this wine, plan to open a bottle in 2040. Should you feel impatient, opening a bottle now will suffice—it is very good today. 15% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
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South Australia |
1 |
96+ (WA) |
$1,240.00 |
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Wine Advocate (96+)The 2019 RunRig hails from a hot, dry vintage, and the wine here is brooding, structurally firm and savory. The wine is thoroughly black, both in the glass and in its nature—black fruit, black spice, brooding tannins. While the 2018 may be open for business now, this should remain closed for some time yet—2030 as a minimum would be the recommendation. 15% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.
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South Australia |
1 |
98 (WA) |
$486.00 |
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Wine Advocate (98)The 2004 Descendant, an old oak-aged blend of 92% Shiraz and 8% Viognier from a 12-year old vineyard, offers up notes of blackberries, ink, sweet truffles, and acacia flowers. There are 1,000 cases of this full-bodied, intense, rich blockbuster. It will drink well for 10-15 years.
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South Australia |
1 |
99 (JS) |
$2,135.00 |
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James Suckling (99)A distinctive and very concentrated, single-parcel shiraz that offers a rich plum and raisin nose with plenty of tarry notes and a swathe of baking spices. The palate is packed with rich, dark-plum and black-fruit flavors and the long, strong hold on the finish lasts for minutes. So intense, this is their finest Laird to date. Best from 2028.
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South Australia |
1 |
95+ (WA) |
$613.00 |
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Wine Advocate (95+)A new offering, the 2004 The Pict, is a 220-case cuvee of 100% Mourvedre that tips the scales at 13.2% alcohol. Reminiscent of a 1998 Domaine Tempier Cuvee Speciale (a great vintage for that estate), it boasts an inky/blue/purple color, phenomenally intense blueberry and blackberry fruit characteristics, and hints of black truffles as well as fresh mushrooms. Deep and full-bodied, with superb fruit and the right amount of sweet tannin (a rarity for Mourvedre), this beauty should evolve slowly, and drink well for 15 or more years.
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South Australia |
1 |
19+ (MJ) |
$368.00 |
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Matthew Jukes (19+)My mind went into orbit when I tasted this wine. Tasting like a magical concoction of 4-parts Serralunga d’Alba and 1-part Bonnes-Mares (Morey-side), this wine’s 43% Eden Valley Shiraz component makes it the most energetic, challenging, and utterly mesmerising vintage I can remember. I have always been a Struie fan, but it often sits down in the pack alongside some of the more powerful Shirazes, so one has to look deep into the portfolio to truly appreciate its charms. In 2021, while it is not a bigger wine, it is undoubtedly more intense and aeons longer on the finish, so I can see it standing shoulder to shoulder with its more fêted siblings for years to come.
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Andalucia |
3 |
100 (WA) |
$1,695.00 |
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Wine Advocate (100)The 1946 Don PX Convento Seleccion produced with Pedro Ximenez grapes dehydrated under the sun at the time of the Second World War, was only bottled in September 2011. This is an extreme wine, my first descriptor was ultra-mega-super concentrated. It is unbelievably powerful, both in the nose and the palate, full of umami, with sweet cinnamon, Christmas cake, camphor, petrol, lemongrass, Belgian chocolate and butter. Incredibly complex and rich, sweet, balanced and smooth in the palate, it is both very sweet and somehow salty, and with time it develops a black olive note. It combines the texture of the 1962 and the elegance of the 1949. It is as decadent as it gets. 825 bottles were produced. This wine will survive all of us. These wines are kept for generations and offered in very small quantities, but it’s amazing that you can still buy and drink something so old, and I’m even tempted to say that it might represent good value for what it is. A real tour de force sweet wine. Drink it if you ever have the privilege to do so from 2013-2060.
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Andalucia |
1 |
98 (WA) |
$384.00 |
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Wine Advocate (98)One more single-harvest, old sweet wine, the 1955 Don PX Convento Selección was bottled in September 2014 and it had been aged slowly in very old American oak barrels and getting thick and concentrated through evaporation. It's 320 grams of sugar are (partially) compensated by 6.5 grams of acidity. It has a nose and palate of chocolate-covered candied orange, spices, molasses. I'd say the dominant aromas in the nose are dark chocolate. It's very dense, developing notes of very concentrated licorice and balsamic, mint, camphor and evolving notes of petrol with time. Complex, rare and unique. 8,400 bottles.
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Rioja |
1 |
94+ (WA) |
$113.00 |
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Wine Advocate (94+)I found a very complete 2015 Finca Martelo that followed the style and the quality path of the previous vintages. The release of this wine was an important milestone for Torre de Oña, where they look for the typicity of Rioja Alavesa through a blend of old-vine Tempranillo with 6% other varieties (Mazuelo, Garnacha and even white Viura). 2015 was a healthy harvest, and the wine shows a nice combination of power and elegance. It's clean and modern but with a traditional twist, some developed aromas and very fine chalky tannins from the limestone-rich soils. 80,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2019.
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Catalunya |
1 |
95 (JS) |
$254.00 |
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James Suckling (95)Wow. A glorious chardonnay that I have been admiring for decades. It’s full-bodied with layers of ripe apple, hints of white peach and nougat and vanilla undertones. Creamy. It’s full-bodied and gorgeous all the way through. Drink or hold.
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Bordeaux |
2 |
96-97 (JS) |
$194.00 |
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James Suckling (96-97)Blueberry and blackberry character with hints of white pepper and chalk. Salty, too. Full-bodied, tight and polished with fantastic texture and length. Very closed and tight with gorgeous tannin quality.
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Trentino Alto Adige |
1 |
94 (JS) |
$228.00 |
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James Suckling (94)Wonderful nose of yellow roses, fresh pineapple and jasmine, with delicately spicy overtones. Stunning ripeness and concentration, but even more importantly, almost impeccable balance for a grape variety that’s a winemaker’s nightmare. Very long, silky finish, where the 15% alcohol is barely perceptible. Drink or hold.
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Burgundy |
1 |
96-99 (IB) |
$3,690.00 |
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Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (96-99)5 Star Wine. Picked 28th September. A rich, indeed sumptuous purple. Exceptionally youthful bouquet with a little touch of new wood. A magical wine, which is entirely in balance. It is not just the concentration which moves to another level but the sublime and effortless suavity of texture. All in pure red fruit, nothing dark, my favourite alpine strawberries, but a host of other berries as well. Magical.
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Burgundy |
1 |
95-97 (VN) |
$2,685.00 |
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Vinous (95-97)The 2021 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru, the first Grand Cru to be picked with 50% whole clusters, has a fragrant, pure and (unlike Latricières) inviting bouquet that just wants to seduce. Very sensual. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins that frame the crystalline red fruit, supreme mineralité with one of the most elegant finishes you will find in this vintage. Reminiscent of Dugat's Chapelle-Chambertin, this is divine.
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Burgundy |
1 |
95-98 (IB) |
$2,645.00 |
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Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (95-98)5 Star Wine. Louis considers that Latricières-Chambertin is typically three degrees cooler than neighbouring Combottes. 40% whole bunch vinification. Glowing purple. A touch of reduction on the nose but a vibrant luxurious fruit nonetheless. There is a gorgeous coating of a deep dark velvet fruit with the structure behind perfectly poised, refined tannins and clean acidity. Very long. A gorgeous wine in the making. Louis feels that 2020 lost the plot of Latricières – but not at all 2021.
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Mendoza |
1 |
97 (JS) |
$269.00 |
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James Suckling (97)This is always a great red with subdued yet complex aromas of dark berries, peppers and dried meat. Hints of violets, too. Full-bodied, chewy and polished with a beautiful finish that is serious and intense. Needs two or three years to come together. Available in 2019.
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Bordeaux |
6 |
93+ (WA) |
$159.00 |
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Wine Advocate (93+)A blend of 55% Merlot, 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc, the deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Tronquoy-Lalande races out of the glass with bright, exuberant scents of Morello cherries, mulberries, warm plums and fresh blackcurrants plus touches of allspice, candied violets and tilled soil. Medium-bodied, the palate is laden with expressive black and red fruits plus loads of floral accents and a wonderfully plush texture, finishing long and fragrant.
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Bordeaux |
2 |
97 (JD) |
$437.00 |
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Jeb Dunnuck (97)A flat-out gorgeous wine in the vintage is the 2012 Troplong Mondot, which sports an inky ruby/purple color to go with heavenly notes of black currants, smoked earth, plums, licorice and graphite. Full-bodied, seamless, ultra-pure and impressively concentrated, this blockbuster effort needs 3-4 years in the cellar to let the tannins integrate, and it will knock your socks off over the following two decades.
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Bordeaux |
8 |
96 (JD) |
$1,070.00 |
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Jeb Dunnuck (96)The 2014 Troplong Mondot is unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage, and this beauty has more intensity, richness, and exuberance than just about every other wine in 2014. A blend of 90% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc brought up in 85% new French oak, it sports a deep purple/plum color as well as a smorgasbord of blackcurrants, blackberries, scorched earth, toasty oak, graphite, espresso, and earth. With full-bodied richness, beautiful purity of fruit, and a rich, yet weightless texture, it’s a big, yet classy, elegant, and seamless wine from Xavier Pariente that should be snatched up by readers. It’s already drinking well but has 20-25 years of prime drinking to go.
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Bordeaux |
4 |
99 (JD) |
$703.00 |
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Jeb Dunnuck (99)A wine I was able to taste on multiple occasions, the 2015 Troplong Mondot is a tour de force that readers need to snatch up. This cuvee comes from the cool, clay and limestone soils on the upper plateau (it’s the highest point in the appellation) and is a blend of 92% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cabernet Franc, harvest between September 30th and October 21st, that was brought up in 85% new French oak. Sporting a deep, inky color as well as a sensational bouquet of creme de cassis, blackberry, toasted spice, licorice and spring flowers, it’s another huge wine from this estate that has perfect balance between its fruit, oak and tannin, a stacked mid-palate, and an incredible finish. I wrote "crazy good" more than once in my notes. It has enough fruit and texture to drink nicely even today, yet needs 4-5 years of cellaring and will keep for two to three decades. It's one of the great wines of the vintage.
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Bordeaux |
1 |
100 (JS) |
$958.00 |
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James Suckling (100)Love the perfume and finesse here with fresh flowers, blackberries, crushed stones and cement. Cedar. Full and very long with tight and muscular tannins that go on for minutes. Tight and thoughtful. Soulful. Try after 2030.
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