Torbreck "Les Amis" Grenache 2021 (Barossa Valley, Australia) - [DM 95] [WA 94] [JS 94] [WS 93]

Torbreck "Les Amis" Grenache 2021
(Barossa Valley, Australia) - [DM 95] [WA 94] [JS 94] [WS 93]


$250.00 $189.97 Save $60.03
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DM95 WA94 JS94 WS93
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Notes from the Winemaker:

A multi layered perfume of violets, kirsch and concentrated red berry aromas with a succulent, dense and vibrant fruit intensity. The concentration, poise and elegance is perfectly balanced and typical of this unique terroir. Revealing a savoury elegance in its youth, the Les Amis will continue to build in complexity for many years to come.
VINTAGE The 2021 summer growing season was mild, with even and cool daily temperatures throughout.  Enhanced by good rains provided during the winter and spring of 2020, our vineyards grew wonderful canopies and developed well-formed grape bunches.  As a result of this long flavour development cycle in the vineyard, 2021’s signature is wines of high aromatic lift with densely coloured tints and exceptional balance.
TASTING Crimson with a brilliant hue. Immediate, aromatic red fruits such as dried raspberry, red cherry, pomegranate, red currant and cranberry. Secondary notes of Chinese five spice, sarsaparilla, star anise, cloves and petrichor, balanced by cinnamon spice and vanilla pod. The palate is sumptuous and decadent with mouth filling fruits, texture and depth finishing with cleansing acidity that elongates the finish. Old vine Grenache from tiny berries drives complexities giving full-bodied depth with firm but balanced and drying tannins that are firm and grippy and give the wine plenty of time to mature in the cellar for 10-15 years.  Serve at 16c/60F with game meats or charcuterie or Asian roast duck.  

 

Ratings & Reviews

 

95 Points - Decanter Magazine:
The Slade vineyard in Greenock produces this atypically dense, well-structured Grenache, with a firmer acid and tannin profile than most. In a milder vintage – and with a little whole-bunch ferment – it throws long and reveals a little more of itself when, sometimes, Les Amis can feel impenetrable. Nonetheless, it retains savoury nuance, with medicinal, cough sweet herbaceousness and a touch of eucalyptus to the red-fruited, warming kirsch core.

94 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 
The 2021 Les Amis Grenache is spicy and wide, meaty and yet floral, with black tea, dried rose petals, graphite, roast beef crust, a hint of pastrami, blood orange and salted macadamias. The wine is shaped by charry oak (matured in barrique as opposed to Harris and Hillside foudre). This lends an altogether different angle to the wine, and I must admit, I quite like it. The oak is in the charry, bacon fat, pipe resin, tobacco spectrum, and it sits very well with the sweet, floral fruit. This is a very interesting wine here. 15% alcohol, sealed under natural cork and wax. 2024-2036.

94 Points - James Suckling:
Wonderfully perfumed aromas of wild blackberries, tobacco leaves, ferric earth and menthol. The palate is full-bodied with fine tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of blackcurrants, mocha and dried herbs. Powerful with an underlying freshness. Made from a dry-grown vineyard planted in the 1960s. Only 225 cases made. Drink or hold.

93 Points - Wine Spectator:
Fragrant and expressive, with distinctive notes of kirsch and black walnut liqueur up front. Offers details of apricot preserves and salty black licorice, plus a touch of dried violet, all on a dense and fleshy frame. There's a lovely element of juicy acidity alongside toasted tobacco accents that linger. Grenache. Drink now through 2035. 150 cases made, 20 cases imported.