Torbreck Les Amis 2017
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast
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Winemaker Notes
A wine of immense pleasure on the nose of violets, red currant, wild raspberry, Chinese five spice and pomegranate aromas. Cleansing acidity drives the wine to finish fresh and alive with plenty of mid palate texture and old vine Grenache complexities to give this wine plenty of promised maturity in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
David Slade’s grenache in Greenock delivers smaller berries and bunches. This has been elevaged in French oak barriques for 24 months. Pomegranate and spiced berry-pastry aromas, together with earthy, leathery and spicy character. The cooler vintage has delivered quite complex style. The palate has a very juicy feel with a bolder oak thread and quite a chiseled palate for grenache. Plenty of structure here.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
No Les Amis was bottled in 2016, so the successor to the 2015 is the 2017 Les Amis Grenache, a wine that spent two years in 50% new barriques. It's smoky (like a barbecue pit), boasting lots of dried spices (akin to a dry rub) and cola. (What else would you pair with barbecue?) It's full-bodied and creamy, with some cherry-berry notes (so maybe it's Dr. Pepper, not cola), but the wood is a bit too dominant to make me truly swoon, adding dry tannins on the finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Torbreck's ultrapolished, approachable style is on display here, but those who spurn new oak influence will run a mile. Made with French barrique (50% new), there's so much of it that it's currently blanketing the wine, giving it a coat of sweet vanilla cola. Hiding beneath are lovely, ripe black and blue fruit, flowers and spice. The palate shows more fruit purity, a silky texture and a fine tannin structure. The oak still dominates, though, and a flash of heat from the alcohol is visible, too. Give this another few years in bottle; the cellaring potential is there.
Other Vintages
2018-
Robert
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Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Robert
Parker
Torbreck, founded in 1994 by David Powell, is situated at Marananga on the western ridge of the Barossa. Since that time he has produced some of the world's finest 'Rhone varietal' wines, exclusively from Barossa fruit; this has been acknowledged by the wine press in Europe, America and Australia. The overwhelming majority of his vines are dry-grown, nearly all are 80 - 125 years old and are tended and harvested by hand.
The wines have an extraordinary combination of power, intesity, complexity and great finesse, and bearing in mind the age of the vines and the laughably low yields, no Torbreck wine could ever be accused of being heavy, cloying or over-extracted.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.