Pyramids Road Club Members will be wondering what to include in their club packs this year. If you like reds this is one of the best Bernies Blends to date. The only improvement I can think of is to add some Mourvèdre but that’s just me and it’s been an ongoing “light” banter between myself and Warren for a few years, best solution Warren, ‘plant more mourvèdre’ that’s a decision I won’t regret ha ha. Anyway this one is a 3 barrel blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon (both estate fruit) and Petit Verdot (from Rosemary Hill) all matured in French and American oak.
The colour is quite consistent across depths, deeper coloured, as you would expect, towards the centre and joyfully glowing at the meniscus with a lovely luminous reflective radiant red. The colour alone suggests some protracted longevity.
Sense of smell as always announces and beckons the palatal experience about to arrive. If you spend little time with the bouquet of a wine you will miss so much. Here I encounter violets, berries and cherries, some vanillin oak, chocolate and spice. A quite textural and smooth palate for such a young Bernies and made so in part by toasty and creamy vanilla oak. Impressive depth of black berry fruit accompanied by black cherries, then a promenade of dark plums spiked with milk chocolate. There is some spice edging in the direction of a cardamon spectrum sprinkled with a little black pepper. The acid is in common agreement with the wines components but still has a modest refreshing quality. Some Warren Smith trademark tannins fine and drying yet managing to pitch themselves in a zone of magical resolution between subtle and menacing provide a very long exhilarating farewell.
If you don’t mind a little well balanced oak you can drink this wine now, otherwise wait a few years for all that considerable fruit weight to perform it’s oak gobble up and enjoy the wine then. If you really appreciate tertiary characters this wine will cellar many years. All in all it’s your gig – enjoy it!
Tasted: Sunday 7th February, 2021 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $45
Suggested Drinking Window: 2022 to 2035
Winemaker: Warren Smith
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