Hello, old school McLaren Vale opulence. This Patritti red is a homage wine to the original John Patritti Broughton and is a ‘best barrels’ selection from the Patritti vineyard in Blewitt Springs. This is a luscious, chocolate-drenched, coffeed purple wine. Oak is a big player – it’s a choc mocha+++. But, there’s a polished dark fruit purple ness too. It’s not my sort of wine – a bit plush for that – but lots of oomph makes this thick purple wine admirable for its unabashed, big-boy pants mode.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now to fifteen years
• Score (out of 20): 18
• Score (out of 100): 93
• Alcohol %: 14.5
• RRP (in $AUD): 80
• Winery website: https://patritti.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a glass