Tasting Notes - Fighting Gully Road Tempranillo 2003 (Recommended)

This is a big, gutsy Tempranillo. Dark, inky black in colour. It has a nose that jumps out of the glass at you full of black cherry and blackcurrent fruit, spice, pencil shavings and violets. The palate is fairly weighty, relatively smooth with grippy, but not intrusive, tannins at the back. Plenty of black cherry fruit bursts onto the front palate with some smoky, woody notes. The oak influence is obvious but the fruit stands up to it. Apparently the vines are relatively old for Tempranillo in this country. I was impressed with the wine's structure and I think cellaring would be rewarded.