First Drop `Pintor` Tempranillo 2010 (6 x 750mL), Barossa, SA.

Expert Reviews

Well, First Drop Pintor 2010 gets 50% new French oak, 20% new American oak, 30% old French oak for 20 months. Riserva kinda vibe. Probably some nude pigeage and likely made to listen to the sex scenes from Jamon, Jamon while it rests, knowing the First Drop lads. Gets similar kind of treatment that fancy wines of Rioja get, which is often overlooked in the Australian framework of tempranillo winemaking.

Opulent aromas fleshed out with cedary, nougat tinged oak and a whack of seductive dark briary fruits. A serious kind of approach when getting down with this wine. Strict across the palate though, their back label says ‘architectural’ and I wrote the same. Feels built and layered through the mouth, a pleasing, engaging aspect of the wine. Dark gently sweet fruits, some savoury, dusty, spice and again the pucker of wood and then tannin morphs out through the finish of the wine. Great drinking here, one of the best examples of tempranillo I have seen from Australia to date. Just add Jamon. Rating 92+ Drink 2012 - 2027 - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front (AUG/2012)

This ripe, rich and hearty take on tempranillo in the Barossa is packed with dark, brambly fruit and framed in 50% new French, 20% new American and the balance older French timber. There are dark toasted spices, cherries and mocha. Meaty and forthright with a long, rumbling chain of tannin like a driving bass line. Vinous rock'n'roll! Rating 93 - Nick Stock, Good Wine Guide 2013

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2010 Pintor Tempranillo offers up aromas of black raspberries and blueberry preserves with hints of baking spices and menthol. Medium-bodied, it brings a good amount of warm red berry, spice and earthy flavors to the glass along with refreshing acid and a light grip of tannins before finishing long with good persistence. Drink it now to 2018. Rating 90 - Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, February 2013