Medium ruby, orange reflections on the rim. Enticing nose of small red fruits and well-dosed spicy oak. Velvety, smooth texture with a tight core of ripe fruit. Barely firm finish of good length, nice roundness overall and ready to drink. The taste of a mature wine for a song.
Aromatic and expressive aromas of dark fruit, plum, liquorice and earth, quite mouth-filling and structured, yet elegant and restrained with firm tannins, bright acidity and a long, slightly ripe and soft finish. Begs for roasted game.
Purplish. Nice red fruits on the nose, no oak. Supple and clean taste, delicate tannins; almost silky texture except in the grainy finish. A simple but elegant glass from the southern island of Sicily.
From 75-year-old organically farmed Carignan vines, this is from Testa Vineyards' sandstone and loam soils in Mendocino, just over 520 m in altitude. After a 10-day maceration, this spent an additional 10 months in neutral French oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Dusky plum, raspberry, mineral, black cherry, dried thyme is carried with fine, persistent acidity, lifted and bright, all with a persistent perfumed overhue of wild bush blueberry. Bottled unfined and unfiltered (an overt cloudiness), this has a grippy duskiness on the lingering finish. A lovely pour, though wish it was about half the price.
Red ales are a rare breed spotted mostly in Atlantic Canada. PEI’s sparkling copper brew has a rich grain and toffee character and a whisper of herbs, offset by a firm hop bitterness. Pair with grilled chicken and a green salad.
Confirms Andy Johnston’s years of insisting that the Island is the place for Pinot may well be coming true. Forward notes of dark berries and leather hints followed by a layered palate with black cherry and tobacco; complex savoury notes wrapped in silky tannins through the close.
An intense nose of brambly raspberry, black cherry, earth and an interesting display of spices. It’s rich with a bit of savouriness on the palate with a plethora of red fruits, emerging spices and earthy/meaty undertones. It has firm tannic structure to go with mouth-watering acidity through the finish.