The Best Lot Retrospective - April 2024

One of the enjoyable and thought provoking parts of my job is annually reviewing the past vintages of the Best Lot. I reflect on the past vintage conditions, review the winemaking notes and actions in the winery for each vintage with the intent of improving the breed. I also find it instructional to review how the past vintage wines evolve and subtly change personality with age......just like people!

I love giving my wine a character, so follows is my summary of the personalities of each vintage.

• The 18 is a knockabout fellow, upfront and honest. Probably wearing dusty RM Williams boots with a bonecrushing handshake.
• The19 is a delicate pretty soul. Im sure there are flowers in her flowing hair.
• The 21 cloaks is muscle and sinew under a beautifully tailored suit. Under the French cuffs is a Patek Phillipe. 

2018 The Best Lot (Robe)

The first vintage of the Best Lot is still a bit of a monster!

This is the only wine sourced from Robe, the super cool climate seaside village 300km south of Adelaide. 

Rich, mouthfilling and assertive. Fruit cake, spice, mocha and nougat flavours. Showing some bottle aged roundness but still with the youthful generosity of tannin and some punchy oak. Built to last!

2019 The Best Lot (Langhorne Creek)

A milder vintage showing fineness, delicacy, and elegance. A real contrast to the 2018 vintage.

Showing lots of lovely bitter red fruits like cranberry, gogi berry with savory herbal caperberry characters, this wine is decidedly more feminine. Really pretty aromatics, bright fruit and softness, the 19 Best Lot is lovely drinking now and for the next couple of years.

2021 The Best Lot (Parawa - Southern Fleurieu)

Punchy, perfumed and polished! (how's that for some alliteration!)

I have a real soft spot for this wine. Grown in a location that is climatically marginal for ripening Malbec, the 21 is in my view the most varietal of the wines to date. Sweet mulberries, plums, perfumed crushed violets. Mouthfilling and muscular showing fruit concentration and a real backbone of acid. A generous wack of new oak underpins the muscularity of the 21. 

Again a real contrast to previous vintages.