It's especially satisfying to follow a label over time and observe how it varies with each vintage. Sometimes an especially good vintage will show extra depth, or unusual complexity, or a particularly intense perfume, all the while retaining an essential consistency with its siblings. There's no doubt this is an excellent Hilltops, and it shows the trademark fruit density and character that I look forward to every year. But there's a powerful something "extra" in this release -- an almost flamboyant spiciness that is present both on the nose and palate -- that has me smiling tonight.
Smelling this wine is like inhaling the potpourri jar on the coffee table in front of your grandmother's overstuffed, slightly faded floral lounge. I trust that experience isn't unique to me. In any case, There's a powerful presence of cracked black pepper and dried flowers, more assertive than usual for this label, that adds a striking dimension to core notes of ripe, elegant berry fruit. There's a roasted meat note too, and the whole communicates a depth and complexity well beyond its price point.
The palate carries forward these same themes: complexity, shapeliness, spice. There's plenty of flavour, sharply intense and with a chewy density, that exists within a firmly medium bodied framework of fresh acid and powdery tannins. A controlled, gently widening line creates a crescendo of flavour in the mouth, with fruit flavour peaking around mid palate. The wine continues to build beyond this, but it shifts gears into spice overdrive through the after palate. Whole bunches of flowers and dried spice fill the mouth with elegant, detailed opulence. A lovely lift at the back of the mouth ushers in a long, elegant finish composed mostly of flavoursome tannins.
I don't pretend to be objective in my approach to tasting. There are more intense, more complex, more structured and certainly more expensive wines out there (including some from Clonakilla). But tonight, with a lamb roast minutes away from being on the table, I can't think of another wine I'd rather have in my glass.
Even better than the 06. Nothing to add from me. Could quibble over "powdery tannins", found them a little firmer but will save that for another time :)
Tannins powdery on second day. And you wonder why I don't start my own blog...
cheers
jeremy
I get such a pleasant surprise when an experienced taster like yourself sees a wine in one of my notes, because the imprecision of language in this context is tangible. Powdery tannins, for example. You read this description as meaning "less than firm," yet for me it's a textural thing, independent of volume or assertiveness. "Powdery," for example, is finer than "grainy," but perhaps less fine than "chalky."
Anyway, I'm reliably informed that my palate might be screwed so what you, and other enthusiasts, taste is very interesting to me.