My not-so-hot-take – Mencia can make profound red wines and I can’t wait until we get the vine age/clones/site selection etc etc for it to align for quality. This La Linea Mencia 2018 is a step in the right direction, even if it’s not there yet.

From the Revenir vineyard at Lenswood, which had a first Mencia crop in 2015. Early picked but not unripe, it’s a wine that captures the leaf litter tannic savouriness that Mencia does well, very much a savoury rather than ‘fruity’ style, the palate long and lithely tannic with just a little mint. Intrigue here for sure, though an easy wine it is not.

A watch-this-space sort of wine. Best drinking: now to five years for a start. Will it have the fruit to progress more than that? 17.5/20, 91/100. 13%, $29. La Linea website. Would I buy it? A glass or so.