2023 Xanadu Petit Verdot

This excellent, long ripening season has certainly suited Petit Verdot, one of the later-ripening varieties. This is a beautiful wine; the aromas are highly perfumed, with rose petal, dark cherry, blackcurrant, and rich, creamy dark chocolate against a slightly spicy backdrop. There’s plushness in the rich, creamy dark fruits, but it remains vibrant and alive throughout the palate, which carries through to a sustained finish. Good tannin presence is evident, sitting comfortably with the French oak, 40% of which was new.

Dense blackberries, mulberries, coffee beans, leather and spices with tobacco, olive brine and bitter chocolate. Licorice, potpourri and bay leaves. Full-bodied with firmly framed tannins and a silken mouthfeel. A real spine of acidity brings this powerhouse of a wine together. Very good but not for the faint-hearted. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Dense, saturated, glass-staining purple. Fragrant ripe berry fruit (mulberry, blueberry) which is fresh and bright, with full body and density, lashings of tannins, a suggestion of talcum-powdery oak, the finish solid and very firm. A big, bold, straightforward wine that begs for more time. It tastes like a Margaret River red first and foremost.