2015

World Wine –

Wine Spectator – Intense, stylish and pure, with a gorgeous beam of Jonagold apple, Cavaillon melon and quince flavors laced with extra hints of white peach and honeysuckle. A long quince echo shows on the succulent finish, which is deftly balanced by fine acidity. Best from 2014 through 2024.

World Wine –

World Wine – As always, immense value for this wine. Delivers so much for the price point.

Wine Spectator – Elegant, this red shows a hint of herbs to the black cherry and black currant fruit. Open and ready now. Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

James Suckling – Crushed berries with cappuccino and hints of underbrush. This is really delicious with showy red fruit-oriented flavors, really juicy.

Decanter – More full bodied than 13.5% alcohol would imply, this is cool and crunchy with butterscotch oak coming through in a decent commercial style. Drinking Window 2017 - 2020

World Wine – “The 2015 Bernadotte shoots above my expectation. It has a clean and fresh bouquet with plenty of appealing graphite notes. The palate is medium-bodied with dusky black fruit sprinkled with black pepper, good length and nicely focused. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.” Neal Martin

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – “The 2015 Bernadotte has a lovely, lilting redcurrant and cranberry-scented bouquet, the oak nicely integrated, fresh and lively with tobacco coming through with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, quite light for this vintage, but balanced, with a "breezy" brambly red berry finish. Easy-going Haut-Médoc.”

James Halliday – Wild yeast-fermented in French barriques and aged on lees for 12 months. It offers a rare combination of elegance and complexity, the latter achieved without any funky/reductive characters, the former with a combination of citrus, white flower and tropical flavours. Still cruising.

World Wine – Drawn from the barrel, this has a lively and intense ruby color so rich it coats the sides of the glass. The bouquet has intense and slightly ripe notes of red fruit like raspberry or cherry while the other aromas are distinct, refined and quite complex and leave no trace wood. Fruit dominates the mouthfeel that is rich and soft with evident tannins and acidity, while the finish is fresh and above all long. I imagine this to be good with suckling pig in a sesame crust accompanied a turnip purée with a little raspberry and blueberry jam. 94 Points - Giovanni Curcio

James Suckling – Cedar, dried flowers, cherries and spices on the nose. Medium-to fullbodied with very polished, refined tannins and excellent length. This has gorgeous structure. Needs two or three years to soften. Excellent potential. Try after 2023. 95 points James Suckling

The Wine Front – Necessity is the mother of invention. In 1993 Tim Adams was desperately short of shiraz and cabernet so his neighbour, Fergus Mahon, sold him some grenache to keep him ticking over. Hence The Fergus blend was born, and has been made ever since. This release includes tempranillo and malbec, all of which is dry-grown. Its usual reliable self. There was a time when I wasn’t a great fan of The Fergus but we’ve moved on from there in recent years. It’s well-balanced, fleshy, not too light and not too heavy. It’s red berried with star anise, cola and gum leaf highlights. It’s a well tailored red, perfect for casual drinking.

Wine Enthusiast – The wine comes from the Leflaive home village and the blend (from more than 20 parcels) demonstrates the intimate knowledge the family has with its terroir. It has a fine balance between the ripe yellow and white stone fruits and acidity. These are given structure by the wood aging and strong mineral texture. This is still developing and still filling out, so drink from 2018.

Wine Enthusiast – Made with the involvement of Hubert de Bouärd of Château Angélus as consultant, this wine is superrich and packed with dark fruit. Despite its high alcohol for a Bordeaux, it is balanced and fruity with tannins the are comfortably cushioned by the fruit and freshened by acidity. Drink from 2021.

Wine Enthusiast – This wine is dark and earthy at first, but opens with airing to reveal bold notes of blueberry, mocha and peppery spice. This 50-50 blend of Grenache and Syrah is full bodied, richly textured and finishes long.

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – It offers fabulous black cherry, licorice, wet gravel and ample crushed rock like minerality. Medium to full-bodied, nicely textured, elegant and polished.

World Wine – Langton’s Classification VI: Excellent. The intensely-perfumed and muscular Aberfeldy Shiraz reflects the character of vineyard site as much as the personality of winemaker Tim Adams. The 1.6 hectare Aberfeldy Vineyard includes a large proportion of dry-grown, colonial vine stock planted by Wendouree’s Alfred Percy Birks in 1904. This ancient genetic material produces large berries and very high seed content. Vinification takes place in closed fermenters and is followed by 24 months maturation in new American oak. The rich, buoyant and spicy Aberfeldy Shiraz is a deeply-concentrated, opulent style with blackberry aromas, malty/cedary oak and a firm tannin kick. The underlying muscularity of structure is reminiscent of the Wendouree style.

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate –

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – Coming from the prestigious lieu-dit Chêne Marchand with its shallow calcareous caillottes soils in Bué, the 2012 Sancerre Le Chêne reveals a complex, dense, fresh, and lovely perfumed bouquet of oysters sprayed with lime juice, Amalfi citrons and grapefruit. Le Chêne is a rich, full-bodied yet fresh and animating wine with a profound and persistent minerality and a characteristic taste of wet chalk. It has a lovely salty finish with white fruit and lime aromas.

The Wine Front – It’s a jammy yet crisp Central Otago wine in the mould of many of the high end wines of the region. Has that ripe cherry, Cherry Ripe scent going on with whiffs of sweet earth, tobacco, tomato leaf. The palate is juicy, raspberry jammy and yet crisp on rivulets of cranberry acidity, faintly malty with barely-there oak personality, and gets some tugs and tucks from a chalky sheet of tannin. Indeed, the wine finishes long but puckering in both tang and pretty dryness. Nicely done. Real nice.

World Wine – The West Australian Ray Jordan has had almost as many wines as waters but he can still be impressed, bestowing on a couple of married Margaret River vignerons his highest-ever score of 99 out of 100. The Weekend West’s wine writer said Moss Wood’s 2014 Wilyabrup cabernet sauvignon is as close to perfect as a wine could be, even edging out the celebrated Penfolds Grange. “I’ve always maintained Grange is Australia’s greatest wine but it’s not necessarily our best,” Jordan said. “To me, Moss Wood cabernet encapsulates everything that’s Margaret River and this one just absolutely nailed it.” Most critics agonise over a low score, but Jordan thought long and hard about going into uncharted 99 territory. “I pride myself on giving scores that are relevant and over the years I’ve seen a lot of really good wines that have gone only as high as 98 points,” he said. “But this cabernet is a cut above, even upon release — who knows how good it’ll be in a few decades. “It’s a wine that will live for 40 years,” Jordan said. “That’ll see me off the planet and a lot of other people. “And when you think about it, at $120-odd a bottle ... Grange and Hill of Grace are up over $800 a bottle. I think I’d rather six bottles of the Moss Wood.”