This wine is estate-grown, open-fermented with hand plunging, and spends 10 months in new and used French oak, an expensive upbringing for a $19 bottle of wine. Has bright and lifted red cherry aromas and flavours; superfine tannins lengthen the finish, as does the French oak. Seductive style. Drink: Now - 2016 with duck and mushroom pie. Alcohol: 14.5%; Price: $19; Closure: Screwcap; 94 points & Halliday’s Top 100 Wines for 2010 – The Weekend Australian November 13-14, 2010
Typically bright and lifted red cherry aromas and flavours; superfine tannins lengthen the finish, as does the French oak. Seductive style. 93 Points; James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion 2011, Aug 2010
The folks at De Bortoli recommend that you drink this with rabbit stew - half your bloody luck if you do! A clear example of the magic that is modern-day De Bortoli - you get a whole heap for your money here. It's plump but elegant, peppery and silken. It's loaded with gorgeous cherry-plum flavours and better still, has a fennel-like bite on the finish. For all its effortless beauty it has challenging, twiggy, foresty characters too - only serving to make it seem like a complete wine. Super. Drink 2010-2014. 93 Points and 5 Star Value; Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh, The Big Red Wine Book 2010/11, Jun 2010
Winner: Wine of the Week - You get a whole heap for your money here. It's plump but elegant, peppery and silken. It's loaded with gorgeous cherry -lum flavours and better still, it has a fennel-like bite on the finish. For all its effortless beauty it has some challenging, twiggy, foresty characters too - only serving to make it seem like a complete wine. I'd imagine that it will improve, and soften further, over the next few years too. 92 Points; Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
De Bortoli has mastered the art of blending shiraz and viognier so that the whole is greater than the sum of parts. Subtle understated aromatic lift on the nose with a generous soft and rounded palate. Grand drinking now. Ray Jordan, Fresh - Best Reds, The West Australian, Jun 2010
Best fact of all is that it tasted good. It's a complete wine. it's elegant and silken, peppery and full of fleshy, cherry-plum fruit flavours. It also has some twiggy, stalky notes that add both complexity, and perfume. For now it drinks at its best after it's been in the decanter for an hour or so, though it should drink even better in another three or four years - so long as it's been well stored in the meantime. Buy the wine for the taste alone, and you're onto a winner. Campbell Mattinson, Gourmet Traveller Wine, May 2010