Craggy Range Sophia Gimblett Gravels Vineyard 2024
- 94
- $172.99
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A 79% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon blend anchored by Merlot from Block 24 (clone 481), hand-harvested after a cool, delayed budbreak and bunch- and berry-sorted before whole berries went into closed-top French oak cuves for 21-23 day ferments. Each block was matured separately in French oak before the final blend returned to oak for a further six months. A little shy initially, though unfurling nicely with milk chocolate, mulberry, plum and pencil shavings before some time in the glass reveals more prominent cedar, sweet tilled earth, graphite and spent coffee grinds. The graphite brings a mineral feel through the perfume bringing a lovely sense of shape. In the mouth it’s intense and precise – plum, cedar, chocolate, espresso, graphite again, a subtly minty edge. Very classy and fine but with a firm assertion of grainy tannins – not overt – but framing and elongating the wine to a long finish. I like this for its power that’s funnelled through a linear coil to great length. A strong release.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
