'98 Points - Lisa Cardelli - Wine Pilot

The fruit used in this cuvée is harvested from vineyards on the eastern end of Puruatanga Road, on soils predominantly featuring free-draining gravel. This second release is screaming minerality, with a noticeable graphite-like foreword. Then cinnamon, bramble, a touch of clove, nutmeg, and cedar. Oak and whole bunches are not the only features here, as there is a noticeable amaro, Campari-like note, and aromatic herbs enriching the picture. Again, there is a seaweed-like salty element complemented by a lick of green walnut. It is a highly well-balanced wine; the palate being the exact photocopy of the nose, which, in case you ask, no, it’s not always that obvious. Light on its feet, yet bold. The precise line of acidity is caressing the palate and melting into a persistent length of flavours; having tried this wine from an open bottle from the day before, I see how much the oxygen benefited it. And if the proof is in the pudding, a wine that can stand against oxygen so well, and so effortlessly- and actually improving with air exposure- got the final word.