Red Wine

Reviews of 2023 Sand Road Grenache:

92 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. A bright, pure ruby hue in the glass. Aromas of rosehip, red cherry and blood plum juice. A strawberry roll-up or two. Dried thyme and sage leaf. A cascade of elevated acidity and fine but powerfully dry tannins. This will wake up your taste buds and come alive with some fatty meats or a charcuterie board. Keep an eye on this site and wine; there is plenty of promise here. Particularly for the structure those gritty tannins give to the final product. For now, this is a steal at the price. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2022 Sand Road Grenache:

94 points, Decanter, David Sly, January 2024:
All high-toned cranberry over sunny cherry, but then slinky tannins pull a tight line. Texture and tone become the central focus before a pillow-soft landing. Great control and poise from this admirable, high-wire balancing act.

91 points, The Real Review, January 2024:
Medium-deep red-purple colour with a lift of volatile acidity which also comes through on the palate. Taut, firm, lean and a little austere. Intense, focused palate flavour. Probably not volatile enough to worry most drinkers but it would be better with less. It's quite a muscular wine which should have a solid cellaring future. A good decanting and aeration helps.

92 points, Winepilot, August 2023: https://winepilot.com/story/hither-yon/
There’s always something special about McLaren Vale Grenache, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s bright and juicy (and particularly vibrant with food), showing lots of red and black fruits (wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, black cherry, stewed plums) and some spicy cinnamon and black pepper. Give it some time to breathe and it will express itself confidently, both on the first night and the second.

Tony Love, InDaily February 2023:
From the Leask brothers’ youngest Grenache vines at 13 years old, crafted into a youthful, fragrant, bistro style with 20% whole bunch influence in the winemaking that offers a subtle sappiness in the palate. While you are being seduced by its floral aromas and freshly squeezed plum and apple juiciness, you should pause for a mo, as it has plenty to offer in its textural game, lip-smacking and with an appealing spicy/peppery tannin profile in the palate and finish. Bistro, yes, and very food conscious as well – its own crew suggests pairing it with the vegetable and cheese pasty from the Willunga Bakery.

Reviews of 2023 Grenache Mataro:

91 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. A real mix of blackberries, red cherry and pomegranate. The wine has a stirring ripe herbal nuance, like creeping ivy over a wild rose bush. Acidity has kept crunchy and vibrant with understated oak rounding out the closure, Mataro giving the wine that little speed hump of flesh on the middle palate. A clever wine that would please a Pinot drinker all the way to a Shiraz drinker. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2021 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, James Sucking, April 2023:
Bright, youthful and crunchy with aromas of red cherries, raspberries, pink peppercorns and white pepper. Medium-bodied with vibrant acidity and fine tannins. Peppery and wild finish. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. Delicious now.

92 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, February 2023:
The 2021 Grenache and Mataro blend really delivers thanks to an expressive and generously fruited style radiating with black cherry, baked earth, red currants and older oak with a classic touch of McLaren Vale old iron. The palate is beautifully pitched - mouth-filling flavors and al dente tannins are superbly balanced to deliver genuine power and length.

93 points,  Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium deep crimson. Strawberry, red cherry, blueberry, bubble gum hint aromas. Sweetly fruited wine wine with ample red fruits, supply velvety textures and fresh indelible acidity before finishing crunchy and long. Very good viscosity and mineral length. Drink now to 2026.

91 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
The 2021 Grenache Mataro is composed of 70% Grenache from the Hunt Road vineyard and 30% Mataro from the Sand Road vineyard. This is great! It is vibrant, nervy and fresh, with a skein of tannin that courses through the fruit. The acidity is briny and makes for juicy drinking. Well played.

Reviews of 2020 Grenache Mataro:

93 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Strikingly bright and fresh raspberry aromas here with wild herbs and bracken, as well as leafy tones. Lively red and blue fruit sits concentrated on the palate. A fresh blend of 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro.

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
Hand picked, with a smidgeon of whole bunches (10%) in the 70% grenache. The oak, all used barriques. Sweet floral aromas segue to Turkish delight and kirsch. White pepper, Seville orange zest and clove lace the long finish. Sappy, crunchy and yet, a bit sweet.

Reviews of 2019 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, Winefront by Mike Bennie:
From good folks comes a good wine of good grapes from two good vineyards. Tension is the first thing that came to mind. This ain’t no blousy red. No, indeed, it sits on train tracks of tannin and acidity, a good bite of amaro tang and amongst all that some jubey, blackcurrant fruitiness. Perfume is mild but floral-leaning with dashes of peppery spice. It’s a wine that has you sit up straight and pay attention. It’s a bit serious, but good in that way. Medium weight, svelte, tense. Good stuff.

Reviews of 2018 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, January 2020, 95 points and top value wine:
Classic southern Rhône Valley style, with the wild herbs and spices of the garrigue giving pleasure in the rims of aromas and flavours alike. It will be hard to keep your hands of it, but it could be a knockout with more time in bottle. 14.5% alc.

92 Points, James Suckling:
Bright, red-fruit fragrance here with some darker berries in the mix, too. The palate is crisp, succulent and juicy, as a good young grenache should be.

Mike Bennie - WBM March/April 2020, 93 points:
There's a really lovely marriage of sweeter fruit gamey, earthy characters in this wine. I like the general sense of detail in the wine too - sheets of fruit character layered on spice, savouriness and a fresh pool of acidity. It feels quietly complex but wildly drinkable.

Reviews of 2017 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, August 2018, 94 points and red value star:
Superb colour; at maximum turbocharged revolutions, but the power is smoothly delivered across the palate. Because the balance is very good, this richly endowed wine will repay cellaring particularly well.

Mike Bennie, WBM July 2018, 93 points:
Lovely stuff. Fragrant with musky-spice, raspberry and cranberry scents. The palate does a similar turn and sits squarely in a medium wieght wine zone. Some heft to the flavours but the finish is a bell ring of clean acidity. Appealing as. 14.5%, $27.

Decanter World Wine Awards (2018). Silver Medal. 93 points. www.decanter.com 

Reviews of 2016 Grenache Mataro:

Andrew Graham, Oz Wine Review, June 2017, www.ozwinereview.com:
The Leask Brothers are switched on growers and these wines typically show plenty of sunny generosity (if sometimes a little heat). The blend here is 60/40 Grenache Mataro; a good mix. Lots of juicy black and red berry fruit. Lovely. The tannins have a real sandy Grenachey shape to them (but with a licoricey oomph). Palate is silky smooth, slightly syrupy but really quite satisfying in its curranty flow, a big luscious wines that is very young, but exuberantly so. It could do with another year in bottle to integrate the bold flavours a little, but the flow of red fruit is undeniably attractive. Very well priced too. Best drinking: 2018-2028. 17.7/20, 92/100+. 14.5%, $25.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, May 2017, www.winefront.com.au:
60% Grenache, 40% Mataro. I don’t have a feel for 2016 in McLaren Vale, as yet, but so far, I like what I see. A hearty red, but one that’s not too heavy. Red fruits, some floral perfume, slight confectionary notes, but tapered in with dried herb. It’s medium bodied, juicy and savoury at once, with a rub of sandy tannin, fresh red fruits, and a gently bitter amaro herb and earthy aftertaste. This goes all right. Good drinking here. 91 points.

Huon Hooke, April 2017, www.huonhooke.com
Deep red/purple colour, the bouquet black cherry, spices, firm tannins and good body weight. A nicely judged kiss of oak. Balanced and complete. 90 points.

Stuart Robinson, May 2017, www.thevinsomniac.com:
Nigh on pitch-perfect 60/40 blend of two listed players. There's just something so wickedly, consistently, deliciously moreish about H&Y reds. This no exception, it extracts a juicy, jubey aromatic without straying too far towards confection. Call it an allure, call it what you will, inviting is what it is. Slipping around the palate with ease in its easy going, red fruited nature. There's more juicy red fruit, a slip of tannin providing an edge, a framework to carry. Mataro brings up the rear, it's bassy foundations adding length, substance, spice. 91 points.

Reviews of 2015 Grenache Mataro: 

August 2016. 90 Points. Huon Hooke. www.huonhooke.com
Spicy, sweet cherry, confectionery aromas. The palate is tight and lean with firm, fine tannins and a pleasant after-grip. A good, clean, bright wine of some depth. Very smart wine.

August 2016. James Halliday, Wine Companion. 92 Points:
Aromas and flavours are both savoury and sweet-fruited with raspberry, chocolate, and mulchy notes in the mix. Well integrated tannin and acid keeps things fresh and in order.

May 2016. Max Allen, Australian Gourmet Traveller:
Top Drops of the Month, No 1. "heaps of juicy red berry-fruit flavours, but there is also a delicious gutsy earthiness-like sweet black composting leaf litter-that sets it apart.

March 2016. Stuart Robinson, www.the vinsomniac.com.au, 91 points:
A 60/40 blend of Grenache and Mataro respectively, and 100% McLaren Vale. Raspberry, red fruit, some wild herb/garrigue thing with a choc-raspberry-fudge milkshake. Trust me, it works. Juicy, a little dark fruit, chocolate, fine tannin; palate enlivening acidity that brings back the wine full circle. There's fruit in abundance, a little savoury tickle, good length. Another stellar wine.

February 2016. Winsor Dobbin. www.winsorschoice.blogspot.com.au:
This is a fabulously accessible blend of 60% grenache and 40% mataro – the ripe, sweet grenache fruit melding with the earthy funkiness of the mataro to produce a beautifully balanced red that is designed for immediate enjoyment. No need to cellar this one; just put some gourmet sausages on the barbeque and you have a wine/food match made in heaven.

February 2016. 90 points. Gary Walsh. www.winefront.com.au:
Good stuff. It’s crisp and perky, almost Italianate. Raspberry rope, strawberry, dried herb perfume. Medium bodied, crunchy and fresh, red fruits, light sandy tannin, more red fruits on the finish. Almost a ‘volcanic rock’ kind of thing going on. Nice to see a McLaren Vale wine that so bright and ‘food friendly’.

Reviews of the 2023 Tempranillo:

91 points, James Suckling, December 2024:
Youthful and fresh, this has notes of raspberries, red cherries, white pepper and paprika on the nose, followed by a medium-bodied, lithe and lightly peppery palate. Drink now.

Reviews of the 2021 Tempranillo:

90 points, Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Companion 2022:
An everyday quaff, suggesting that handling of this early ripening variety is getting better. Bing cherry, iodine, lilac and lavender. The tension is serviced by reduction as much as a verdant lilt and vanillin streak of gentle tannins.

92 points, Nick Stock, James Suckling 2022:
A mid-weight red that has good purtity of blueberry and cherry fruit with a faint floral and white-pepper edge. Holds a sleek and succelent stance in the mouth and delivers a vividly fresh squeeze of tannin through the finish. Drink over the next 3 years. Screw cap.

Reviews of the 2020 Tempranillo:

92 points, Nick Stock, James Suckling 2021:
A wealth of blackcurrant, blueberry and violet florals that are really expressive and sweetly fragrant. The palate has a tautly fitted frame of tannin that carries juicy blue-fruit flavor. Fresh and crisp.

Best in Australian Tempranillo' - Young Gun on Wine:
AThis made the top-six lists of five tasters, with Wren placing it first on his sheet, while Andrew had it just one place back. Forbes, Jones and Infimo also rated it highly. “Cherry cola on the nose coupled with lifted red fruits such as cherries and plums – reminiscent of a summer berry pudding,” wrote Andrew. “The line of acid and tannin provide energy on the palate and carry the vibrant fruit which presents as juicy and moreish on the mid-palate."

Reviews of the 2019 Tempranillo:

92 points, Jane Faulkner, James Halliday Wine Companion, August 2021:
A lot of pizzazz packed into this with its cherry-accented fruit, sarsaparilla and woodsy spices. It's medium-bodied, juicy with firm tannins and a slight green edge on the finish means having this with food.

91 points, James Suckling:
This is a bold, vivacious style with plenty of deep-set blueberries and cassis and a smooth and bright, juicy palate that carries a long band of bright, blue-fruit flavour.

Reviews of the 2018 Tempranillo:

95 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
"Full of flavour, texture and life. This is about as full-bodied as tempranillo gets and, even better, it comes dressed in velvet. Plum, black cherry and cola flavours sweep through the palate in convincing fashion. Fine-grained tannin stitches the finish into a neat package. It's good."

92 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front:
(Posted on 09 July 2020) "It would appear we are a little late on this one, as I note, while grabbing a bottle image, that they’re on to the 2019 on their web shop. Oh well. Come hither. Cherry and plum, a little earth, BBQ sausage, and spice. It’s medium-bodied, with pleasingly sooty tannin, ample fruit and balanced acidity, a bit of sweet strawberry freshness in the mix, and a nice long even finish. What a charming wine it is. Speaks of region and grape most eloquently."

2019 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show - Bronze Medal "Bright red fruit strawberry and fine powdery tannins. Soft juicy and within the frame of the varietal fruit with balanced plushness and fine tannins. Cherry ripe, chocolate. Nice crunch tannins. Exotic flavours reminiscent of an Icelandic picnic."

Reviews of 2017 Tempranillo:

James Halliday, 07 August 2018, www.winecompanion.com.au
"Full, bright hue; red and black cherry on the bouquet lead directly into the palate before savoury tannins try to take a grip on proceedings." 89 points

Mike Bennie, WBM, May/June 2018, 92 points
"A more serious-feeling Tempranillo than expected with concentration and richness on its side. Perfume is appropriately floral, rose hip tea- imbued and shows whiffs of choc- Turkish Delight, while the palate is more mulberry sweetness and a dash of clove/cinnamon spice. Some real glide here too. 14.5%"

Andrew Graham, Australian Wine Review, May 2018, https://www.ozwinereview.com
"Another varietal ‘17 Vale red from Hither & Yon team. Molten, dark berry nose – it’s not Rioja but gee it’s expansive and thick fruited with that southern McLaren Vale inky density. At first I thought this might be too ripe and slick sweet, but the tannic depth and wafts of choc berry carries this forward. A genuinely substantial McLaren Vale Tempranillo. Best drinking: Wait a year or so to see it at its best and drink in 10. 17.5/20, 91/100. 14.5%, $27."

Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, November 2017:
Gold Medal, 95 points

Reviews of 2016 Tempranillo:

93 points and red value star, James Halliday, August 2018:
Made from two pickings, almost 3 weeks apart. Open fermented, whole berries and bunches, and 6 months in French oak. Unequivocally varietal bouquet, with lifted aromas of fresh cherry, blueberry, and cola extract, spliced with a more savoury element. Fresh, juicy and flavoursome, but moderated by the fine tannin. Delicious.

90 points, Huon Hooke, February 2017:
Deep, young purple/red colour. The wine is full-bodied and fruit-driven on the palate with bold, bright young flavour and soft but persuasive tannins. The wine is very young and primal but very good. Balance and mouth-feel are excellent and it just remains to be seen what some bottle-age might bring.

90 points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, December 2016:
"Delicious Joven style: jubey, juicy, fruits of the forest mix. The kinda wine you want to sink your head into: cooling, calming, intriguing, inviting. There's a darker edge to the palate, a light rub of tannin. Medium bodied, a twist of aniseed - lush fruit. Strikes this balance between downright simplicity, with a little dark underbelly. Would easily handle a summer-necessary chill.

2015 Tempranillo reviews:

Mike Bennie. WBM Magazine. May 2016. 93 points.
"This is Tempranillo marching to its own beat. Neither joven nor Riserva, it's a slurpy, slippery, medium weight thing that shows choc-cherry and anise characters in perfume and flavours, lushness of fruit and a lightly sandy finish. It's seriously great drinking and could take a light chill too."

91 points, Wine Enthusiast (USA), March 2016:
Dark cherry in colour with black infections at the core, this wine has a pleasantly vinous nose of pomegranate seeds and blueberries. Sweet spice and perk acidity invigorate the medium bodied palate, while supple rounded tannins hang in the background. The finish lingers with cinnamon-dappled raspberry pie flavors. Even if only moderately complex, this wine is incredibly easy to sip. Drink now through to 2018.

91 points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, March 2016:
Savoury, woody hints, flashes of blue fruit, a little black cherry. In the house style: a juicy fruit-bomb, not lacking in a little savoury depth - a second pick of fruit comprising 12% of the wine was allowed a little extra hang-time, with some whole bunch inclusion - a little acidic reach into the corners of the palate. A light rub of tannin, some black licorice and a little bitter cocoa. Juicy, moreish, another winner from the H&Y team.

Huon Hooke, March 2016:
Deep red colour with a trace of purple. Dark cherry fruit pervades the bouquet, becoming chaffy with airing, while the palate is ironstony and firm, straightforward and plum-pippy, ending with a trace of bitterness. A pretty good temp.

88 points, Andrew Graham, March 2016:
Juicy red fruit, wet brick Temp varietal characters, then more raspberry and cola fruit with a little earth. It’s a nice 'joven' style this, all fruit, minimal oak and light sandy tannins. Slurpable, juicy wine, if a tad simple. Best drinking: 2017-2021.

Reviews of the 2022 Touriga Tempranillo:

93 points, Silver Medal, 2024 National Wine Show

95 points, Gold Medal, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2023

93 Points, The Vintage Journal Summer Wine Guide 2023:
Bright cherry ruby. This opens up with a delicious core of berry fruits - blackberry and dark cherry laced with red strawberry and tobacco spice. It then flows through to a chocolate, inky and earthy core of flavour with tannin torque through to a beautifully sustained finish. Very impressive.

92 Points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, April 2023:
These blokes make some very tasty wine. So purple and intense. There’s salted plum, sarsaparilla, violet, a fair bit of ozone, dark chocolate and liquorice, and toasted hazelnut. Fleshy and ripe, all the toasted nuts and cherry chocolate, are also quite salty and umami, with silty tannin, lavish flavour, ferrous and wheaty, with a rich finish.

Reviews of the 2021 Touriga Tempranillo:

89 Points, MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator, December 2023:
Starts with blueberry syrup, black liquorice and floral details of violet, segueing to toasted green tea on the juicy core. Reveals firming, earthy tannins and a hint of fresh mint on the finish, Touriga Nacional and Tempranillo. Drink now.

16.5/20 Jancis Robinson, September 2023:
Pleasing dark fruit with the black tea-leaf note that I sometimes associate with Tempranillo. Finish has lots of medicinal qualities, proper complexity and fragrance. Savoury and tight in structure. (RH).

94 Points,  Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium crimson. Musky plum, blueberry, red cherry aromas with lifted aniseed notes. Subtle, sweet and juicy with blue fruits, slinky loose knit tannins and refreshing pure acidity. Finish is chalk and mineral. Attractive early fruit forward drinking style. Drink now, soon.

92 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
The 2021 Touriga Tempranillo is layered with salted licorice, pomegranate, raspberry leaf tea, garden mint and brine. This is thoroughly enjoyable and not at all the "prohibitively tannic" wine I was expecting. (I love tannins, and these are very fine.) It is mineral and juicy and all kinds of good. Highly recommended.

92 points, The Wine Front 2022, Mike Bennie:
Touriga and Tempranillo, blended for your pleasure. Oof, so purple-fruited, juicy-slurpy and outrageously delicious. It’s inky dark in colour and vibrant as all get out, a cavalcade of raspberry liquorice, blood plums, woody spice and cherry cola. Gently savoury in all that too, but its way more about that friendly and bombastic nature and a vivid portal to the varieties, with come-hither attractive everything. While it does all this, it sits quietly complex in its detail too. A no brainer. Slosh it around with abandon.

92 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
This is delicious drinking, attesting to the future of the Vale as makers become more proficient with better suited varieties. Touriga services the floral perfume and vibrancy, while Tempranillo fills the mid-palate with dark cherry, thyme, mint and sage, pushing the flavours long across a twine of dusty chamois tannins. Mid-weighted of feel, immensely versatile and nicely savoury.

Reviews of 2021 Aglianico:

Bushing King, Best Wine of the Show, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022
Best Single Vineyard Wine, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022
Best Mediterranean Red Variety, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022

17+ points, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023: :
"Planted in the late 2000s, Hither & Yon’s Aglianico is, according to Richard Leask, the ‘most hand-pampered variety in the vineyard, with a tendency to big yields’. The pampering clearly pays off: this vintage won the trophy for best wine at the 2022 McLaren Vale Wine Show. Unlike all the other reds from H&Y, this doesn’t have immediate obvious fruit; instead, it saves its charms for when it’s safely on the tongue, where it unfurls layers and layers of deeply subtle red fruit and long, grippy, savoury tannins."

Reviews of 2019 Aglianico:

93 points, Sam Kim, Wine Orbit:
"It's immediately appealing on the nose with dark cherry, smoked game, olive and spicy oak characters. The palate delivers excellent weight and silky flow, wonderfully framed by fine grainy tannins, making it sturdy and robust with a persistent enticing finish. At its best: now to 2033."

87 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
"Ascendancy is incremental here, with small details improved each year. Hand picked, a longer maceration, a judicious meld of whole berries, crushed material and a dollop of whole bunches, and larger French oak, noted. A mid ruby. Notes of tobacco leaf, sour red fruits and verdant herb. Seems to have been picked on acidity, rather than ripeness. Decent drinking, but better with more weight and ripeness." 

Reviews of 2018 Aglianico:

91 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
"Plenty of spices on the nose, such as cinnamon and anise, with ripe plum and blood orange, as well as berry biscuit and brown tea. The palate has fine but assertive tannins that have been gently cut to deliver a crisp finish with bright red-cherry flavor. "

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
"Hand picked and fermented with 10% each whole berries and whole bunches. Brooding, compact and forceful. Reliant on a phalanx of tobacco-crusted tannins, both as homage to great Campanian expressions as much as a savoury lance, fending off excess. Damson plum, cherry pith, mint and agrodolce scents. " 

Reviews of 2017 Aglianico:

91 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front:
"Strawberry chocolate and mint bouquet. Wild! Game meat in the mix of that unusual perfume combo, flavours do the same, it feels wide and loose but tannin comes late and rumbles. Mad style this. Kind of all over the place, great to sip on, I like the mojo, but expect something different."

90 points, James Suckling:
"There's a fresh, red plum and berry nose here with an earthy, savoury edge on the palate, as well as ripe, gently sinewy tannins."

Reviews of 2016 Aglianico:

92 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion
"Kind of leathery, kind of chocolatey, kind of berried. The net effect is pleasant plus. Firm, graphite-infused tannin and an impressive push of flavour through the finish add up to a wine worthy of respect."

Reviews of 2015 Aglianico:

93 points Decanter, Sarah Ahmed:
"This is a compellingly savoury, brawnier take on another southern Italian grape. Long and textural, with blackberry, salted black olives, leather, violets, bitter chocolate and wormwood."

Reviews of 2014 Aglianico:

Decanter World Wine Awards. May 2016. www.decanter.com 93 points.
"Black plum, lots of spice and a touch of leather. Lovely structure, fresh acidity, firm tannins, raspberry notes and a long savoury finish."

Campbell Mattinson. September 2016. www.thewinefront.com.au 90 points.
"An interesting wine from an interesting producer. Volcanic rocks. It’s an odd descriptor and I cannot profess to have licked too many, but taste this wine and the volcanic rock descriptor springs to mind. Such is wine. Such perhaps is the power of suggestion. This is ferrous and cherried, has a flash of garden herbs, and while light in both colour and flavour, it makes an impression. Something different in a good way. I can’t promise that you’ll taste ‘volcanic rocks’ too, but you will see that the flavour profile here rushes outside the norm."

Stuart Robinson. December 2016. www.thevinsomniac.com 91 points.
"Savoury, of ash and bloodstock, liquorice; there's florals in the mix too, wild herbs. Light, airy, has the pumice stone lightness often seen in volcanic reds; red fruit, raspberry and cherry, juicy flowing length. Such a delicious consistency to this portfolio. Beautiful to drink."

Reviews of 2013 Aglianico:

Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, Novbember 2015.
Gold Medal.

Sarah Ahmed. October 2015. The Wine Detective. www.thewinedetective.co.uk
"It’s a favourite grape which I sort of bunch together with Piedmont’s Nebbiolo and Portugal’s Baga – capable of wonderful aromatics and butch tannins – hopefully with enough fruit to join the dots between nose to tail. Very spicy with leather and inky florals to its plum and red berry fruit; ripe but present tannins and persistent acidity make for a well disciplined, serious finish. 12.6%"

Andrew Graham. June 2015. Australian Wine Review. www.ozwinereview.com 93 points
"Of all the new generation Mediterranean red grapes to come our way, I've got to pick Aglianico as one of my favourites. Too get this much structure and flavour at 12.6% alcohol suggests that Aglianico might like it in McLaren Vale too. Bright plum red; the nose has a soft red fruit fragrance - there's a reference on the back label to 'pink marshmallow' which I think is great. Sappy, dry palate is framed with tannins - bitter, mouth-cleansing, proper tannins. Complement that with some cherry red fruit late juiciness and you've got frankly one utterly delicious, dry and savoury red. Massive yes."

Tony Love. June 2015. The Advertiser - Taste. 4 and 1/2 Stars out of 5.
"Ripping along with its mix of earthy herbs, anise-led spices and classic trio of cherry, plum and raspberry fruits, all slammed in there with a lightness of being; and fine medium bodied flow. Speaks lucidly of its origins and its new home - a delightful drink."

Gary Walsh. May 2015. www.thewinefront.com.au 91 points
"Such a good grape Aglianico. I’m betting we’re going to see much more if it grown locally in the coming years. This is a good go at Aglianico. Cherry and juicy raspberry, liquorice, that typical, for want of better words, ‘volcanic rocks’ character that this grape often has, plus maybe some flowers. Medium bodied, well etched acidity and dry tannin almost scrapes it along the palate (in a good way), and bright juicy fruit, aromatic herbs and dusty tannin close it out. Refreshing style with a bit of complexity. In some ways, not an easy wine to rate, though it’s certainly easy to recommend."

Stuart Robinson. May 2015. www.thevinsomniac.com 90 points.
"Licorice root, amaro/bitter wood and herb - deliciously savoury with a dark undercurrent. Fruit, by way of cherry and plum, with a moreish tang and juiciness. That black edge reappears on the back palate - a little licorice root against the lighter touch of raspberry over spice."

James Halliday. July 2015. www.thewinecompanion.com.au 90 points
"Light, bright colour; a lively, indeed wild, ride: there's a lot of red fruits criss-crossed by herbs and brisk acidity."