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2 days ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
93 $55 Drink by: 2025-2031 MV6 clone grown in Gruyere and matured in French barriques for 10 months. Red Currants, lingonberries and earthy rooibos tea. There is unfurling hibiscus and baked cherry pie. The palate spreads steadily with a wealth of acidity and powdery uniform tannins. There is underlying brown earth, cinnamon quills and cumin spice. A sweetness from fig hearts carries long on the finish. A vintage that threw a bit of all the weather extremes their way, this is a total success....
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3 days ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
95 $90 Drink by: 2025-2031 55% Syrah from Clarendon and 45% Grenache from Blewitt Springs. The deep bass tones of Clarendon make themselves known here in black cherries, plum and tonka bean. Pepper studded salami and licorice root. There are some sweet red fruits too, apple skin and pomegranate seeds. Once again tannins are pillowy and lush with a direct but not too angular push of acidity. This is elegant and yet savoury with almost a spiral effect of detail that keeps giving the longer you...
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3 days ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
96 $90 As the back label reads this is a story of soil and soul and as the 2023 is sourced from 2 vineyards in Blewitt Springs, followed by one in Kangarilla and Onkaparinga Hills, it is also a story of sand. The cool and late season plays into the hands of the fine, floral tones of elegant Grenache. Violet, a hint of rose petal and dusting of pink peppercorn. Recurrent and fresh raspberries adorn a climbing vine of ivy and nasturtium. There is a warm note of paprika and red clay too. The...
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1 week ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
It’s a testament to the strength of the variety and its growing conditions that for under $30 we can enjoy Grenache such as this. This is a tightrope dance of splendid red berried fruits, redcurrants, cranberries and wild raspberries held by a bushland of shrubbery and bay leaf. Dotted with clove, licorice bullets and a powdery mesh of tannins. It avoids the confection like quality with alcohol well worked into the wine and with the nuance of herb and spice.
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1 week ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
Sourced from four sites across the Adelaide Hills. This shows off the buffet of fruits Fiano is capable of displaying. A cheek of peach, a slice of pineapple, squeezed limes and nashi pears. The sweetness of honey dew melon with the racy acidity that circles back to citrus dominant fruits. A wine that bestows its friendly nature upfront and would work with brunch quite nicely. Think corn fritters, blueberry pancakes and Greek yoghurt.
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2 weeks ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
From 25 year old vines this is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 40% Merlot, 10% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot. Wild ferment with 20% whole bunches, basket pressed and matured in French oak for 6 months. A coil of luminous red cherry and redcurrants are supported by the blackberries, cassis and array of leaf litter and fungi found underfoot in the depths of a pine forest. There is a twinge of lilac that is mirrored in the bramble nature of the wine and heightened by mulberry mid palate.
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2 weeks ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
93% Malbec and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon. The second release of Malbec. Handpicked sorted, destemmed and 100% whole berries retained. Basket pressed and matured in French oak barriques of which 255 was new for 15 months. Perhaps a dialled up version of the Malbec we are coming to know and love in Australia. Here red berries are luminous with red toffee apple, raspberry and Gala apple skin. A hint of potpourri and sandalwood shows off the sweet oak spice.
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2 weeks ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
96 $90 Drink by: 2025-2033 20% whole bunch 30% destemmed and berry sorted and 50% crushed to open top fermenters. 20 days on skins and kept on lees in 30% new French oak puncheons. A further 12 months in French and Austrian 25 hectolitre foudres. A pool of dark berries, Holly, bilberry and blackcurrant. There is a generous spread of olive tapenade that leads back around to a halo of blue tinged fruit. Prune and blueberries.
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2 weeks ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
87% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot and 2% Malbec, for all Aussie intents and purposes this is Hickinbothams Cabernet Franc bottling and it is handpicked, destemmed and whole berry sorted. 16 days on skins basket pressed matured in French oak barriques of which 60% was new for 15 months. Like a shiny new toy this is impossible to put down. Bramble, cassis and sandy potting soil, like the type used for succulents and cactus. There is an edge of salted licorice, handfuls of star anise and cardamom.
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2 weeks ago | 
winepilot.com | Shanteh Wale |Angus Hughson
96 $90 Drink by: 2025-2040 Handpicked, destemmed to open top fermenters. 21 days on skins basket pressed to 60% new French oak barriques for 14 months, blended and matured for a further 4 months in French oak. This wine has always had me, at ‘hello’ it’s partly due to its blue tinges of blueberry and lilac but mostly because the wine draws you in, rather than smacks you over the head with its Cabernet -esqueness. Yet all those markers are here too. Blackberries baking in a pie, sage and...
