2023 Brecon Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot (98Pts)

This is somewhat outside our usual wheelhouse. Primarily because the only Merlot we have ever had “a crush on”, from a ripeness perspective in our rarified locality, can best be described as just half a hilltop block. How our winemaker (5’8”) strong-armed the grower (6’6”) to only pick what we call “Diagon Alley” (diagonally) across the block, I will never know! This strip aligns with a band of calcareous bedrock and provides a distinctive fruit quality that is ripe, bright, elegant, and the perfect balancing match to our historic old vine crooner of a Cabernet vineyard. Needless to say, the grower has resisted in subsequent years. Perhaps I need to play cupid and smack him over the head with a bottle (rhetorically speaking, btw) so he truly understands such matchmaking.

98 pts. Womens International Wine Competition, May 2026

94 pts. Intl Wine Report, May 2026.

Double Gold. Pacific Rim Wine Competition, May 2026