Neil Cornish

9.6

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy a large number of bottles of Raveneau and Dauvissat Chablis over the years, premium cru and grand. This Laroche bottling has elements of both. Tons of substance, big minerality and even a touch of the corn tortillas — a year ago

Gabriel Grossman

9.7

Favorite Italian lager. Similar to Peroni. Light and refreshing — 9 years ago

Steven Richardson

8.9

First impression: smells like regular cheap whiskey. Taste, ditto, except stronger (65.1% after all). Great rye flavour though. Suspect that the other ingredients in most Canadian whiskey blends (eg corn) missing from this limited edition ‘best whiskey in the world 2020’ are part of the allure. Mine also had bits from the cask floating in the bottle (yay for authenticity?).

After allowing it to open up with a large ice cube: smells a lot more pleasant and almost like a 15 or 18 year aged whiskey. Taste is still the same initially but sipping obviously gives you a better full spectrum. Alcohol is numbing. Lots of complex flavours from the cask (toasted oak, dark sugar, rye bread) but they don’t linger as compared with 15 or 18 year blends. Would make a damn good strong old fashioned.

Update, 15mins later: I want cask strength whiskey from now on! — 4 years ago

Alejandro Lopez

10

100% Nebbiolo, 48 months in barrel.
In 1997, the Rios family, along with known Mexican winemaker Victor Torres Alegre, started the regeneration of grape varieties in the Valle de Guadalupe.
Ripe fruits, fig and black plum with notes of roasted coffee and tobacco.
Intense and balanced tannins with persistent and evolving large character attack. — 10 years ago

MICHAEL COOPER DipWSET

Owner TomeVinos wine shops, WSET Level 3, Blogger www.spanishwinesandmore.com, blog.tomevinos.com

9.1

This #cabernetsauvignon is very good. I didn’t like the Titan Shiraz though.
#mclarenvale is located around 30 km south of Adelaide at the northern end of the peninsula with the Gulf St. Vincent to the west and the Adelaide Hills to the east.
The region has warm to hot summers although winds blowing in off the Gulf and down from the Adelaide Hills moderate the climate and also keep the risk of disease low. Rainfall levels are relatively low during the growing season (usually less than 200mm), although winters can be fairly wet.
McLaren Vale has a particularly complex geology: many major soil types have been identified, varying from sand to loam to clay. In general, the soils in the north of the region are poor with lower levels of nutrients, whereas those in the south are deeper and more fertile, producing higher yields.
McLaren Vale is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in Australia. By the late 19th century, Thomas Hardy & Sons was producing wine and exporting to the UK. Fortified wine production dominated the first half of the 20th century but after World War II a wave of European immigrants, particularly from Italy, encouraged the return to dry red wine production. In the 1970s, the focus was on full- bodied, ripe Chardonnay and Semillon but, since the late 1980s and early 1990s, this has returned to red wine
It is a large region, with vineyards covering around 6,200ha , and so has a great diversity of microclimates. Proximity to the sea is one factor influencing vineyard climate, as is altitude: vineyards stretch from sea level to around 350m, with most planted on flat or gently undulating land between 50 and 250m.
Over 90 per cent of plantings are now black grape varieties.
premium priced wines, covering both single-varietal and blends. Shiraz is the most planted, with over half of total plantings, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. McLaren Vale reds tend to be deep-coloured and full-bodied with high alcohol levels and pronounced dark fruit flavours. Many have spice characteristics from oak. In the hotter, lower sites, the fruit flavours can become cooked or jammy. Higher elevations give wines with higher acidity and tannins.
Production ranges from inexpensive, high volume bottlings to super-Premium — 5 years ago