With the LE16 wine program announced for the upcoming year, it’s a great time to taste test a previous edition and see why our experienced home wine makers and guild members return to the program – year after year. Not only do these wines rank high in competition, winning medal upon medal – but the consistency of the quality in the program leads to great wine in the cellar to enjoy for several years.
Taste test: LE13 South African Shiraz Cabernet. This wine arrived as the January selection in 2014, and was the Skins kit – perfect for age and cellaring. We put a few people together to judge this wine, and found we were very happy with the results. While we knew the name of the wine prior to tasting, we did our judging first and our research last.
Colour: still a deep dark purple, so holding a fair amount of tannins and pigment.
Nose: Ripe or black cherry, leading to pepper, spice with moderate oak, ending in plum and tobacco. Nose continued to develop as the wine warmed in the glass.
Mouth-feel: Smooth – velvety on the tongue. Still very full (or med-full) in the body.
Taste: Starts with dark berry and ripe cherry, leading into some spice, transitioning into a smoky plum. Once the sip and linger is gone, tongue still hints of dark berry and then tobacco.
With age we expect these fantastic limited release wines to change and mellow. Once we were finished enjoying our taste test, we searched back through our literature to see what WinExpert had led us to believe we could expect from this wine as it aged. Their description was close enough to call this a win! More importantly, we enjoyed a fantastic few glasses of wine.
From LE13 literature: “As it ages it will show ever more blackberry along with plum and a hint of tobacco leading to a rich vanilla and toasty-smoky notes.”
We are always excited when the LE program is announced, and this year is no exception. There are some fantastic single varietal offerings this year, including the distinctive Blanc de Noir. A lot of effort and time has gone into the two blends this year, maximizing on experiencing the regions from which the varietals are sourced. We hope you enjoy the upcoming selections – three years from now when poking around your cellar for a really nice bottle of wine!
Find the LE16 wine lineup here….
Get on the LE16 wait list here. Please let us know which wine kits you are interested in, how many and which location you would like to pickup at. Thank you.
