Ballycroft Small Berry Montepulciano 2016
We met Joseph from Ballycroft wine at a local wine show on the Gold Coast. His tag line "small winemaker, big wines" was catchy and he stood out amongst the remaining vendors by his passion to produce. I'd put his wines into prosumer category of appreciation. That means, while he does do the usual suspects of varieties, he experiments with the rare and hard to find wines making it a major drawcard for people that want something a little different.
Of the Tuscan town’s name, Montepulciano is a close relative to Sangiovese and is renowned for late ripening and propensity to be greener than expected. Ballycroft's expression is rich, plummy and weighty; all sewn up suggesting good handling of the fruit leading to vintage. A wine so expressive of ripe jube-fruit it's like a smack-in-the-face by a market berry vendor – there really isn't anything to fault one the nose. Opulent – with good impression of the fruit carry-over on the palate – this wine has all the tannin structure to complete another five years in the bottle. It was a pleasure to enjoy. Crafted to the core.
“Colour 3 / 3
Aroma 6.7 / 7
Taste 8.5 / 10
Overall 18.2 / 20”