Wine Reviews

Aromatic and elegant, offering fine, silky tannins and complex aromas that range from blueberry preserves and fresh black cherry to bittersweet chocolate, with notes of Earl Grey tea, perfumed fresh violets and white pepper, plus lingering hints of sarsaparilla and wintergreen.

This wine here is all about pomegranate and pink peppercorn, ripe raspberry, black tea, crushed sea shells and minerals. It’s a beautiful wine, possibly as light as I’ve ever seen it, and I love it for that. The tannins and acidity balance perfectly to create a featherlight and long finish.

This Hawke’s Bay Syrah is as mouthfilling and winter warming as the deep crimson color and luscious blackberry, ground pepper and chocolaty oak aromas suggest. But the acidity and fine tannin structure are there, too, suggesting that this polished, harmonious bottle will last the ages. It’s still quite primary now, so hold a few more years if possible.

Silky and welcoming, the 2022 Le Sol is very moreish, with open-knit textures and approachable fruit flavors of red cherry, plum coulis and cola. Oak lends vanilla and cedar tones to the fruit, but the vintage didn’t allow for much expressiveness. The 2022 is a rather restrained, easier style that will give pleasure early.

The core of ripe red berry fruits and blackcurrant, sweet meat and toasty vanilla barrel spice captures the essence of a fine Syrah. Complexity from scents of violet and raspberry, blackcurrant and wildflowers are woven between scents of fruit spice and smoky wood, a whisper of pepper spice, flat mushroom and baking spices of barrel. Complex and youthful.