Cirillo 1850 Old Vine Grenache

I have reviewed the 2003 here before, which was a wine I quite enjoyed. The 2005 Cirillo 1850 Old Vine Grenache pushes the boundaries of ripeness even further. The fruit is dark and brooding, very concentrated and ripe. The tannic backbone is holding it together right now, but the wine has an unpleasant hot finish and is too high in alcohol (16%).

There is no doubt that the Cirillo vineyard delivers great fruit from the old bush vines, but there is no value in pushing the style to maximum ripeness. Earlier picking would have delivered a more pleasant, lively and varietal wine. Hopefully, as this becomes more generally accepted in the Barossa, later vintages will take this into account.

Score: 90/--