Charles Melton, `Nine Popes` Barossa Valley 2018, Australia

94 points, (£70.66)
With spicy caramel licks on the nose, this has good weight and presence, teamed with well-balanced acidity and a long finish. Elegant, complex, impressive, well-made wine; one of the best Grenache-based blends in Australia. Long finish. The elegant and juicy strawberry and blueberry fruit is very precise and defined, all spiked with cinnamon oak spice. Fur-coat tannins. This will age very well. From Grenache planted in 1927. Aged in barriques (70% French, 30% American) 25% new.