Critic Score

• 89 – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

This small-scale, artisanal release captures the deep, brooding power of dry-grown fruit from the Pyrenees region of Western Victoria during a challenging and highly variable 2000 growing season.

Presenting an incredibly dark, brooding black hue in the glass, the wine unfurls with an intensive, highly complex aromatic layer driven by dark plums, rich espresso coffee, and a distinct regional lift of mint and menthol.

On the palate, it demonstrates a massive, heavily concentrated core of fruit that is wrapped inside an incredibly coiled, stalky tightness.

This dense payload is held under a very young, aggressively grippy, and muscular tannic framework that provides an imposing structural balance, giving the overall expression a heavy sense of raw classiness.

Serving as the primary professional reference for the vintage, the review from The Wine Front highlights its dense, unyielding power upon release, characterizing the bottle as "brooding black with an opulent, plummy, stalky tightness".