Tasting Note If you fancy wines with tension, textural elegance and aromatic elevation, get thee to Quarry Road, which is the Tawse site that most consistently makes me gasp. This displays lovely, classic Burgundian pear, hazelnut, lemon-lime, custard, cedar and spice. But let me go on and add dried onion crisp, green olive and subtle reductive brine. It is medium-full bodied, texturally glossy, refined and warm with a perfect acid line and overall balance. Then it drips limestone on the finish. The length is excellent to outstanding. Giving it six stars for value. The 2017 tasted alongside was showing some mature dried fruit, honey and white mushroom and the same lithe texture and minerality with a lime and chalky finish.

Backgrounder The Quarry Road Vineyard is perfectly situated on the gently north sloping apron of Vinemount Ridge. Being less moderated by lake proximity and a higher altitude, it is a cool and windy site, with fruit ripening later than the vineyards below the Escarpment. But it has the same limestone base with shallow clay loam topsoil. It is organically and sustainably farmed and follows the natural slope along the top of the escarpment in the Vinemount Ridge sub-appellation. It easily gives up its minerality in the wine. This was barrel fermented with indigenous yeast and aged in 228-litre French oak barrels and 500-litre puncheons for 10 months.