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.
The 2021 Le Sol is spicy and detailed. Where the 2020 is open-weave and attractive, the 2021 is tighter, more focused and less “available” for obsessive unpicking (as I am wont to do for you, here). There’s raw cocoa, blueberry, finely ground black pepper, orange peel, musk stick, layers of blackberry, mulberry, blood, ferrous notes and a hint of pencil shaving. This is a tightly coiled wine, one that has much unfurling to do, both in the cellar over time and in the glass today. Kaleidoscopic, savory and complex, this is another exciting wine from Craggy Range across the superstar 2020 and 2021 vintages. The exciting thing about the Le Sol is that there is SO MUCH flavor, without weight or density. It is pure concentration, but it leaves an impression of levity and litheness.
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.
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.
