2012 was a very good vintage on the Granite Belt, perhaps not quite as good as 2005 but certainly right up there.
The wine is very deeply coloured in the glass, bright crimson at the edges when you swirl it but elsewhere black and impenetrable. The bouquet is loaded with interest as the wine begins to open up after 30+ minutes, there are black fruits led by blackberry, some spice and briary notes, black olives, hints of liquorice and a deep earthy quality. The acid is nicely integrated and there is supportive oak in the background, the black tea tannins are evident and have softened, length is excellent.
The palate is pretty much on song with the bouquet which presents black fruits, black pepper, baking spices, a minerally rocky terrain character and hints of liqourice and chocolate. I’m not a primary fruit person and I usually like to drink Warren’s mourvedre’s beginning around 9 or 10 years of age, having said that, this wine is quite a youngster, it has loads of development to come and I won’t be touching the next one for another 5 years. If you have some open one and let your own palate decide, for me this is deep and brooding, a full bodied mourvèdre still in a process of unfurling it’s future.
This is a very different wine to the 2009, which is drinking beautifully now and the 2015. The 2015 has much brighter lifted fruit in it’s earlier life compared with this wine. This could be Warren’s longest lived mourvèdre yet, although I haven’t open a 2008 for years.
Tasted: Sunday 3rd March, 2019 September, without food and then with over several hours. Re-tasted the next day after breathing in refrigerated bottle overnight.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $34
Suggested Drinking Window: Now to 2030
