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750ml
Bottle:
$28.99
6 bottles:
$28.42
It is a dark, garnet-red colored wine. It’s very expressive scented bouquet exhales the strong aromas of red and...
750ml
Bottle:
$24.93
$27.20
Quite a savory expression with dark plums, dried blackberries and violets, as well as fine-ground, toasted...
750ml
Bottle:
$64.80
Not yet bottled, the 2017 Cornas has a rich, powerful, chewy style as well as notes of blackberries, blueberries,...
750ml
Bottle:
$298.95
Rated 97-100 - A barrel sample that just about made my eyes roll back in my head, the 2019 Ermitage Ex Voto has...
750ml
Bottle:
$66.34
In a completely different style to the 2016s, the 2017 Hermitage comes from a ripe, sexy vintage for Hermitage. Aged...
750ml
Bottle:
$194.80
$199.39
Kaleidoscopic, this glorious vintage is terroir translucent, transporting you to the vineyard with its signature...
750ml
Bottle:
$150.95
6 bottles:
$147.93
The epitome of elegance with its sheen of silky, pure red fruits and lissome acidity, in 2017 this Eden Valley Shiraz...
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$61.89
#71 TOP 100 CELLAR SELECTIONS 2020. Thanks in part to the relatively cool year, this is a wine that manages...
1.5Ltr - Case of 3
Bottle:
$124.60
Appropriate to this wine's name, a vein of singed earth trails from nose to finish, mingling into delicate notes of...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$25.01
This blend of roughly equal parts Grenache and Syrah offers ripe but restrained blackberry and plum flavors accented...
750ml
Bottle:
$279.94
$293.20
Such incredible perfume and florality from this standout Shiraz, so expressive and captivating, filled with roses and...
750ml
Bottle:
$18.90
$19.99
12 bottles:
$18.24
Raspberries and cherries abound on the nose of the 2017 Lodge Hill Shiraz. It's medium-bodied, built around a core of...
750ml
Bottle:
$241.24
6 bottles:
$236.42
From a rocky, mica-schist lieu-dit that's only recently been showing up on single-vineyard wines, Chapoutier's 2017...
750ml
Bottle:
$394.95
$431.20
The inky colored 2017 Ermitage Le Pavillon comes from the biggest, baddest part of Hermitage and was brought up all...
750ml
Bottle:
$62.90
$64.00
The 2017 Syrah Rodgers Creek Vineyard is in a fine spot for drinking now and over the next few years. Blue-toned...
Grenache Mavrodaphne Syrah 2017
The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.
For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.
In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.
Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.
Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.
Additional Information on Greek Wines
Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?
Known as Syrah in most countries around the world, and Shiraz in Australia and certain other regions of the New World, this grape varietal has proven over the centuries to be one of the most powerful and flavorful red wine grapes there is. It is now one of the planet's most widely grown grapes, and is a favorite with wineries as a result of its robustness and versatility. It isn't easy to identify many characteristics of this particular varietal, due to the fact that it is highly versatile and shows significant differences in flavor and character depending on the terroir it is grown in, and the climatic conditions of the region. However, Syrah is most widely associated with full bodied, strong and loud red wines, packed full of fruity and spicy flavors, held in a beautifully deep red liquid.