i'm gonna try to get to the bonny doon tasting room in the next couple weeks.
i don't think they can legally sell any of their fortified stuff out of state, so check their site and if any of that interests you, let me know.
bonny doon rawks face.

NV Bouteille Call
What is the wine like? For one thing, it is not a wine so much as a call to action, an entreaty, an appeal to reacquaint
oneself with the pleasures of the sensual world. It also happens to be an unguent/boisson that must be slathered
about or accompany the most tasty and tender chocolate-covered bits one can, well, tender. On a more qualitative
plane, the wine is almost unnaturally rich and viscous. When the wine is poured, the aromas of raspberry, cassis and licorice fairly
billow out of the glass in an almost cartoony, Barbara Eden-like fashion. Though the wine has considerable tannin, the tannin
is almost completely buried under the richness and extract and yumminess. “Decadent” is an adjective that is grossly overused
within the academy of wine writers, but one can easily imagine, no offense intended, Hef in the grotto, washing down his
little blue friend with a glass or three of BC in anticipation of innumerable momentos de verdad.

Let us quickly dispense with the tedious production details and then we can move on to the more germane aspects of this very naughty beverage. Bouteille Call is built around syrah from Jeff Brown’s Oak Park Vineyard. This vineyard produces a small crop of very dark, blueberry-sized grapes that are fairly low in acidity and noteworthy for a very strong cassis, licorice and white pepper character. The grapes were destemmed, immediately drained of 25% of their volume of juice [what those blood-thirsty French winemakers call “saigner”] and chilled for four days of cold-soak prior to the addition of yeast for fermentation. Shortly thereafter, we began adding grape spirits in very small increments and a short one-week after crush, the wine was removed from its skins. This is an unusually short cuvaison for us. However the grapes were so concentrated - and we were able to extract a tremendous amount of flavor and aromatic potential as well as color with the cold-soak and the initial fortification – that the wine just seemed to have cried j’arrive, as it were. A few weeks on we made the final fortifications with additional grape spirits and our Framboise, Infusion of Raspberries, thus the cryptic denomination on the back label, “Grape Wine & Raspberry Wine with Grape Neutral Spirits Added.” These fortifications arrested the fermentation at roughly 18.5% alcohol and 7% residual sugar – your garden variety Port chiffres. The wine was then racked to puncheons for a nice nap until bottling.

Just bought this. Better fucking rawk or else.


Click image for info.

This will live for a long, long time. It’s a statuesque wine, firm and dense and serious. It smells dusty and soy-like and layered, and it tastes magnificent – it does that rare thing of offering up a lot now, while at the same time suggesting strongly that there is still a lot more to be revealed. Dense blackcurrant, chocolate, dried herbs, dust, ground spice, and lots of well-formed, rigid, muscular tannin. It is magnificent. Drink: 2015-2025. 95 points. Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Tapanappa's Whalebone Vineyard of 30-year-old vines lies just north of Coonawarra in the Wrattonbully region. This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (70%), Shiraz (20%) and Cabernet Franc (10%) spends 18 months in all new French oak barriques. The nose has a haunting, exotic spice perfume of Sandalwood and incense, with a background of soft, crushed cashew and almond. A core of dense, ripe, focused black fruit comes through powerfully, with a ripe cherry edge and cool, mint-humbug and eucalyptus nuances. On the palate there's a glorious rush of concentrated, hugely ripe fruit, with a glossy, fat, black fruit weight and a swirling smokiness. A core of acidity sears through this wine, a fleshy, plummy, depth and a very finely-grained tannic structure. It is exuberant yet restrained and elegant, and is a perfect step forward from the very impressive but slightly too oaky first vintage in 2003. Outstanding stuff. Tom Cannavan; www.wine-pages.com

A very well made red with elements of cassis and spice. There is also a touch of leafiness. Well integrated oak rounds out a very harmoniously composed blend. Highly Recommended; Lester Jesberg; Winewise, Volume 22

First and foremost the 2004 Tapanappa Cabernet Shiraz is the taste of the Whalebone Vineyard. The terroir delivers complexity involving the aroma and taste of dusty earth and Eucalypt smoke. A glass of Tapanappa Cabernet Shiraz is translucent and a vibrant cerise colour. The aroma is built in layers with a core of Cabernet Sauvignon mulberry and clove surrounded by the blackberry and liquorice of Shiraz. A central sweet fruit flavour follows on with dry dusty tannins turning creamy as the persistence of the fruit, earth and smoke creates length. 2004 Tapanappa Cabernet Shiraz is from a cool dry sunny year and is much longer than it is wide. Spring lamb lightly roasted with thyme and rosemary is the natural dish to amplify the flavours and structure of the wine. Winemaker Brian Croser.