-
94
/ 100
Ken Gargett – Winepilot.com
Red
Classification
Touriga Nacional
Variety
2023
Vintage
750ml (Bottle)
Bottle Size
Australia
Country
South Australia, McLaren Vale
Region
14.5%
Alcohol %
15 Plus Years
Cellaring
Scores
94 / 100"Touriga seems like one of those grapes destined to be a curiosity and yet, there seems no reason that it is not ideally suited to certain Aussie conditions, like McLaren Vale. It is the top grape in Portugal, so expect to see more of it here. This is a fabulous introduction if it is something with which you are unfamiliar. From the Willunga region of McLaren Vale, bunch sorting, natural fermentation and basket pressing before nine months in French oak barriques. An inky dark magenta hue, the nose immediately offers big, bold black cherry notes. There is an aroma reminiscent of black jellybeans, with chocolate, aniseed, cassis and dry herbs. This has incredible length with a soft and supple texture, excellent intensity and impressive extraction. Balanced but bold. Enjoy over the next six to ten years. The best Aussie version of Touriga I have seen. The score may seem high and not the sort of thing one does with curiosities, but surely it is worth it."
- Ken Gargett – Winepilot.com
Tasting Notes
-Sydney Royal Wine Show 2024 - Trophy for Best Other Red Varietal
-Sydney Royal Wine Show 2024 – 95 Points, Gold
This Heirloom Vineyards Touriga was produced from our best McLaren Vale Vineyard whose clones and viticulture embody the very best in cutting edge but old school viticulture and winemaking. Hand tended vines, sorted bunch by bunch, naturally open fermented, basket-pressed and matured in French oak, 20% new, for 7 months.
WINE NOTES
Touriga can be a simple sip or a symphony of the senses, a moment of pleasure or an eternity of contemplation. Only the poet can know, so stop thinking and surrender.
COLOUR
Dark-black and midnight’s purple. Brooding...
AROMA
Aromas of the grape and a faint bouquet from tender oak co-mingle to deliver mulberry and loganberry, nutmeg and cinnamon. Fennel pops up, then a whiff of liquorice; wafting through are dried herbs and freshly picked green herbs, too. Floral yet savoury; dark fruits and dark earth.
PALATE
A dense yet strangely giving red wine. The dark berry fruits match touriga’s proud Iberian tannins. As the wine flows across your palate there comes a creamy texture with rounded and rolling blackberry and plum. The tannins maintain a disciplined rigidity, and dry the wine out at palate’s end, before a return of those lively, lovely dark berry fruit flavours: sarsaparilla, quinine, fennel. Generosity and balance combined with sheer joy and pleasure.
OVERALL
Speaking of Iberia, this is a red wine that does phone home; there’s something savoury and drying about it that speaks both Spanish and Portuguese. It is a red wine that sings a love song to its homeland, and wants for company a good mackerel, or a spicy octopus stew complete with too much garlic, pimenton, and chorizo
Tasting Profile
- Light
- Full
- Low Tannin
- Tannic
- Sweet
- Dry
- Low Acidity
- High Acidity