It’s been a long time between drinks for our Limited Release Collection so we’re wrapped to have the trio back again. The Limited Release Collection represent the finest selection of fruit from only exceptional vintages.
Introducing the 2020 Limited Release Collection!
2018 Old Vine Moppa Grenache, 2016 Carl Albert Shiraz (formally Moppa Block Shiraz) & 2016 Limited Two Shiraz make up the outstanding 2020 Limited Release Collection. All single vineyard wines, estate grown and estate made and exceptional in their own right.
Sommelier Tasting Notes
Below are the words from Sommelier Grant Dickson on his recent tasting of the Limited Release Collection…
2018 Old Vine Moppa Grenache
A raft of aromas glow with late summer raspberries and deeper notes that hint at the plushness that follows on the palate.
In the mouth, the wine’s well-upholstered velvety texture caresses the oral membranes. Flavours are ripe but without confection, heaviness or heat. The impression is of beauty and transparency as bright lifted fruit and linear acidic drive accelerate the flavours through the mouth. Background oak dust swirls around a core of raspberry and red fruit. Old vine intensity shines through.
Food Pairing – Lamb shasliks would love this wine, as would grilled lamb kidneys with sage.
2016 Carl Albert Shiraz
Deep-seated aromas of black fruit, smoke, coal, cocoa and creosote saturate the bouquet. A rare concentration of brooding, nocturnal scents with flecks of aristocratic dusty oak that remain shadowed behind a swell of rich dark plum and bituminous aromas.
This is deadly serious shiraz with an amazing concentration of teeth staining, deep black and purple fruit and plenty of natural heft. The power of the vintage is on full display, though flavours remain on the savoury, serious side of the ripeness spectrum. By the third day open, the bituminous flavours had been absorbed into the wine, leaving a core of profoundly rich, soft and intense fruit, foreshadowing a long evolution during the next decade and beyond.
Tannins are formidable; pleasantly grainy and grippy, they serve to enhance the power and depth of fruit concentration.
This is one to bury in the furthest corner of the cellar. Pull the first bottle out in ten years, when the tannins have harmonised, oak has integrated and the fruit has morphed into a softer more yielding expression. If curiosity gets the better of you and you must crack a bottle straight up.
Food Pairing – Make sure to pair it with robust flavours on the plate: charred sirloin or pot roasted beef chuck with black olives.
2016 Limited Two Shiraz
Intensely black fruited and concentrated, the bouquet is saturated in essence of dark plum dusted with cinnamon spice, with lurking notes of bitumen, Dutch liquorice, coal dust and molasses. There are suggestions of dusty oak and cellar dust. Complexities abound. Happily, the sweetness of ripe fruit, while it imbues the aromatic profile with richness and concentration, doesn’t dominate.
Nocturnal aromas also find expression on the palate: concentrated ripe plums, earth and Christmas cake. A crescendo of tannin peaks towards the back of the tongue, where it detonates, sending shards of glorious sensual tannic shrapnel to every corner of the oral cavity. This is a serious expression of Shiraz, thought provoking, impenetrable, delicious and yet imminently drinkable.
I have no doubt that time in the cellar will further harmonise the components, soften the tannins and allow the transformation of primary fruit into more savoury tertiary expressions. But so delicious and balanced is the wine right now, that I would be buying enough so as to enjoy quite a few bottles straight up.
Food Pairing – Try with charred, charcoal-grilled porterhouse with caramelised onions.