https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/orchestracms/eosportal/pdf/tasting-notes/bekkers-mclaren-vale-syrah-grenache-2016.pdf

Destemmed and tipped into a tonne fermenter. Gentle pump over and slow extraction until full dryness. Only the free run was placed into a 3 year old French oak barrel. Soft palate with extremely precise and thin tannins that caress and carry on the freshness and intensity.

The Torbreck Les Amis Grenache is aged for 18 months in new oak and is a remarkably fragrant wine that shows abundant aromas of spice, cherry and wild raspberry. Textured and plush on the palate, it evolves into layers of blackberry and red currants with firm, ripe tannins. David Powell continues to lead this formidable Barossa wine estate to truly remarkable heights.

The Rozas 1er cru Garnacha is, as the name says, classified premier cru by Comando G. Elegant and poised, this wine is a step up in classification and altitude, sitting above the Rozas Villages vineyards close to the ceiling beyond which growing grapes isn't really viable. The brick-red tinge to the colour bring Langhe to mind, Nebbiolo specifically, and there are more hints of that in the glass. The colour and the approachability owe a lot to the greater presence of silt midst the layers of granite. For the 1er cru, the vines are older, the soils are lighter and the altitude of the vineyard is higher than the village showing that signature highwire Sierra de Gredos/Comando G acidity.

DOMAINE RAYMOND USSEGLIO & FILS, Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Imperiale