The Black Pig Clare Valley Shiraz 2016

Wine:  The Black Pig Prize Shiraz
Winemaker: Fuse
Vintage: 2016
Variety: Shiraz
Price: £19.99
Buy Now: Virgin Wines

A big bulky Shiraz, with a powerful bouquet and wonderfully extracted flavours of inky dark fruits, vanilla, liquorice and leather. 

Incredibly intense, with grippy, almost wild tannins, a bit of a mouthful for sure and a lengthy decant is most definitely required. A good food pairing also works well, with steak and ale pie working wonderfully for me personally.

All in all, a good wine, in fact a very good wine, but currently a bit boisterous and needs some care and attention. For sure will be much more approachable in three to five years.

The Diamond Rutherglen Tawny

Wine: The Diamond Rutherglen Tawny
Winemaker: Jen Pfeiffer
Vintage: N/V
Varietal: Shiraz and friends... 
Price: £17.99

This is absolutely stunning and one of the best New World fortified wines I've ever had. It's great on it's own, slightly chilled, but it's fantastic with rich blue cheese and its mind blowingly good with rhubarb crumble and vanilla custard!

A pungent and heavily oxidative nose of raisin, caramel and hazelnut, with some subtle perfumed background notes:strawberry, red cherry. I could swirl and sniff this for eternity, it's so welcoming and thought provoking; everything about it transports me to being curled up on the sofa in front of the fire on a desperately cold, wintry evening. In the mouth it's all about rum and raisin ice cream, with prune, dates and caramel all playing a supportive roles.

Soft, supple and syrupy, this is the nectar of the gods I tell thee! It's masculine and intense, yet has an elegant femininity. Persistent and lengthy, so so good! Truly memorable.

Buy now from Naked Wines