Wine Advisor
Torbreck, RunRig 2009
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
It seems to odd to say that a 97-point wine wasn't showing particularly well, but that's how I felt about the 2009 RunRig. It shows all of the rich, silky plushness expected of RunRig but maybe just a bit less perfume, looking more like black cherries and mocha than raspberries and violets. I still wouldn't throw it out of bed for eating crackers.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2009 RunRig opens with wonderful perfume, and though this label usually contains a splash of Viognier, which could account for the fragrant nose, it has none this vintage. Redolent of violets and blueberries it is very spicy with an undercurrent of anise and Indian spices muddled with mulberries. Taut and elegant on the palate, it gives plenty of concentrated fruit flavor with crisp acid and firm, fine tannins. It finishes long. Drink it from 2016 to 2030+. Importer: Wine Creek Cellars, Sonoma, CA.
About the Producer
Although only 10 years old, Tobrey Estate has some of the oldest vineyards in the Barossa Valley, Australia's most sacred wine region. David Powell, the founder of Tobrey Winery, was introduced to wine through his uncle when he was studying economics at university. In the 25 years since he graduated, David Powell has spent his time learning about winemaking at prestigious wineries and in Europe, the United States and the Barossa Valley, and in the 1990s he began reaching out to local landowners to learn about their mostly dead, overgrown and neglected vineyards. Over time, David brought them back to life. He then began negotiating contracts with landowners to use these vineyards. By the end of 2003, he had signed long-term contracts with 35 local winegrowers who owned old vine vineyards. Today, David Powell is one of Australia's leading talents in making Rhone Valley style red wines. The winery is currently owned by Pete Kight. Currently, the vineyards at Tolbray cover 250 acres (101 hectares) and are planted to Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre, Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, Frontignac and Cabernet Sauvignon. Frontignac and Carbernet Sauvignon, among others. The average age of the vines is 60 years and the planting density is 1,500 vines per hectare. The winemaking philosophy of Château Tobré is based on the idea that quality wines are made in the vineyard through pre-bottling cultivation. Therefore, most of the grapes used in the winemaking are harvested from old vine vines, selected from the different sub-appellations of the Barossa Valley. The winery judges the harvest based on the ripeness of the fruit flavors, not the sugar level, so that it can obtain grapes from vines with optimal tannin, acidity and physiological ripeness. Once the grapes are harvested and returned, the winery makes the wine using very traditional winemaking techniques, starting with a gentle destemming of the grapes and then slowly pumping them into fermentation vessels with open tops, rotating them in a cycle twice a day with a mandatory complete load reduction. At the end of the fermentation process, all the skins are pressed in a basket and malolactic fermentation takes place spontaneously in barrels, using indigenous strains of bacteria from each single vineyard. All the wines of the winery are not clarified or filtered before bottling. Some of the more recent vintages of Château Toblet are 2002, 2001 and 1998.
