Score: |
99 JG. "Unlike the Horseshoe Hillside, the Alpine Hillside bottling does include just a touch more whole clusters than the “regular” Alpine cuvée, but otherwise the wine has been treated exactly the same in the cellars prior to bottling. The bouquet is pure, complex and absolutely stunning in its youthful magnificence, offering up notes of black cherries, black plums, a stunning base of minerality, a potpourri of botanicals, a touch of gamebird, graphite, incipient notes of the autumnal elements to come, a touch of youthful stems and a refined framing of new wood. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and light on its feet, with a sappy core, great transparency, moderate, beautifully integrated tannins and a long, tangy and still fairly youthful finish. This is more accessible out of the blocks than the Horseshoe Hillside, but it too is really built for the long haul and it would be criminal to commit infanticide with any bottles of this rare and utterly brilliant young wine." John Gilman, View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2015, Issue #5 |