James Halliday – A blend of tempranillo, mataro and grenache from three Clare Valley vineyard sites. We've got a live one here! Juicy and ultra-fresh feeling, a bit sweet-fruited and sticky in texture but delivers a pleasing mix of ripe cherry, plummy fruit characters, woody and peppery spice mix and cola/sarsaparilla notes. There's a lushness in the texture, but it finishes fresh enough and with a smidge of tannin. The perfume is ebullient and lively. In all that, a wine of immediate sensory appeal. - Mike Bennie

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate –

James Halliday – The 2021 Le Fauve Rouge is a blend of Orange Pinot Noir and Hilltops Tempranillo. The colour is so vibrant it almost halts traffic, the perfume of the juicy red fruits and transcendent notes of exotic spices and gossamer tannins resulting in a wine with no “drink to” guides. It’s ready now, but will coast through to the end of the year. James Halliday

World Wine – The Cillar de Silos Crianza is produced with the fruit from different old-vine plots (40 to 50 years of age) on sand and lime soils, feels quite classical, with aromas of ripe black fruit, spicy oak and an herbal side that adds freshness. The palate is remarkably fresh for the vintage, with polished, fine tannins and enough acidity. A very good crianza.

James Suckling – Black cherries with cedar and dried flowers, as well as dusty earth. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm tannins that are long and polished. Lots of structure. Very typical and focused. Drinkable now, but better in 2024.

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – I tasted two vintages of the estate red that represents the blend and the character of the place. The 2018 Reserva comes from a cooler year and is a blend of 86% Tempranillo, 6% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha with 14.12% alcohol and a pH of 3.48. The grapes ripened thoroughly and the wine is tasty but has a vibrant palate with freshness and depth. It has a classical nose and is complex and spicy with an earthy touch, a little developed and with fine-grained tannins. Very tasty. It spent 18 months in oak barrels, 90% of them French and 10% American; they are reducing the amount of American oak in this wine. - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Wine Front – “55% Tempranillo and 45% Malbec. One of the most distinctive red wines in the country, this one. Blackberry, dark cherry, toasted hazelnut, bitter dark chocolate, slight paprika, rosemary and floral notes. It’s robust, ferrous and rich, black olives, inky and spicy, raspberry pip acidity, with a deep but lively red fruited finish of excellent length. A bit more rugged this year, but such a good wine.” Gary Walsh, The Wine Front April 2023

James Halliday – Expansive, full of flavour and textural, this is yet another exciting release of the estate rosé. Red apples, raspberry, lemony acidity and oodles of exotic market spices. Finer and more precise than the 2020 release, in line with the cool year that birthed it. - Erin Larkin, Halliday Wine Companion

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate – I was really looking forward to the 2016 Pingus in bottle, as the sample I tasted last time promised to be one of the best (if not the best!) Pinguses to date. Few (if any) vintages of Pingus have shown such integration of the oak, especially considering the wine is so extremely young. It has precision and symmetry, elegance and austerity à la Audrey Hepburn. This 2016 is like an updated version of the 1996, produced with a lot more knowledge that helped them find this purity, freshness and elegance. Peter Sisseck described it as seamless, and I could only agree. He also said that this is probably his ideal of what the wine from Ribera del Duero should be. The wine was kept in barrel for an extra couple of months and was finally bottled in August 2018; there were 8,100 bottles produced. It delivered all the sample promised, and perhaps a bit more...

James Halliday – Predominantly shiraz from the Wallcliffe subregion of Margaret River. A pale copper blush with light cherry and plums sprinkled with some spice and fresh herbs. Juicy, tangy and soft. - Jane Faulkner