Mayford Tempranillo 2013 – 97 Points

This is the tempranillo Australia had to have. This is a truly stunning wine. It’s been a long, hard journey for Mayford Tempranillo to come of age but here it is, of a sudden, all grown up, and it’s better than anyone may well ever have imagined. Kudos to Bryan Nicholson and Eleana Anderson, the folks behind the growing and making of it. It’s a super savoury wine, super tight, ripped with muscular, earthen, smoky tannin and yet perfumed, spicy, intriguing. The flavours extend into tomorrow. Graphite and chicory, red earth and redcurrant, fennel. At heart and in essence though, this wine is dry and structural, a rocky outcrop, a dare, a climb, a step into the hitherto unchartered. Previous vintages of Mayford Tempranillo have been good; some have caused a splash; this release builds on all those previous steps, and yet its quality rises far over the ruck of them all. I’ve followed Mayford closely over the past handful of years but I have to say: I didn’t see a wine like this coming.

The Wine Front