2019 The Laird

A warm, low-yielding vintage. Sourced from vineyards dating from the 1960s, prone to cooling afternoon breezes that facilitate a long hang-time and supple tannins. Violet, clove and cardamon notes. A complex potpourri of spices confers savoriness to the blue and black fruit. The oak is toasty but well placed to corral and compress the fruit rather than overwhelm it. Drinkable now, but best from 2028.

- Ned Goodwin MW (02/2024)

A powerful, dense and dark mix of huckleberry, blackberry and salted black licorice notes leaps out of the glass, with accents of bittersweet chocolate, palo santo, black pepper and black walnut liqueur. For all its depth and darkness, the tannins are polished and velvety, and the concentration brings promise for a long life in the cellar. Shiraz. Drink now through 2042. 200 cases made, 8 cases imported.

- M.A.W. (12/2024)

The 2019 The Laird is savory, earthy and dense, a true Darth Vader wine in every sense: black, firm, gently rasping, authoritative and powerful. On the nose, the wine leads with resin and kicked black dirt, pipe tobacco, charred sandalwood, blackberries and blood plum. On the palate, the wine is laden with black peppercorns and black olive brine, lashings of charcoal, black tea and every other manner of black thing (clove, arnica, salted licorice and balsamic poached strawberries). It is an eloquent product of the dry 2019 season (300 or so days without effective rain!), and ultimately, it is this that makes the wine great—its ability to express the year and the vineyard with such expressiveness is thrilling. Actually, going back to the wine now, it is opening up (it was poured straight from bottle without decanting) and becoming more fleshy, defined by Satsuma plum and mulberry and detailed aromatically. This wine will evolve gracefully over the years. 15.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork and wax.

- Erin Larkin (04/2024)