2015 Snobs Creek Brookes Shiraz Cabernet Merlot

A year plus on from our initial tasting sees the oak showing much better integration with the fruit. Excellent colour displaying a totally opaque black dark purple core with a deep dark purple black hue. Lifted aromatics of ripe blackberry and blackcurrant intermingle with liquorice, vanillin cedar and spice. Full bodied with a juicy textural feel, mouthfilling flavours of ripe blackberries, blackcurrant and liquorice are overlaid by traces of dark chocolate, vanillin oak and spice. Velvet smooth perfectly integrated tannins concluding with a long ripe blackberry, dark chocolate, liquorice and spicy vanillin oak aftertaste. A blend with plenty of richness and flesh to it.
Drink over the next 4-5 years.
Alc 14.3%

First tasted July 2016: Matured in French and American oak. Totally opaque black dark purple colour with a dark purple hue. Nosing reveals scents of plum, liquorice and freshly crushed blackberries followed by some vanillin cedar and delicate spice end notes. Fleshy blackberry, liquorice and plum flavours are overlaid by a good dose of toasty vanillin cedar and some spice. Soft velvet smooth tannins. Aftertaste of blackberries, toasty vanillin cedar, liquorice and spice. A soft, round, fleshy blend, the vanillin cedar component just a touch too prominent.
Drink over the next 2-3 years.
90 points