Tamlyn Currin

White Castle Regent 2020 Wales

17.5

100% Regent from Monmouthshire vineyards in Wales. South-facing, planted in 2009.
Peppery. Box leaf, herbal, lavender, Turkish delight. Kumquat. Lick of milk-chocolate and coffee. Each time I smell it, I’m heading in a different direction: Chinon, Jura, Friuli… It’s edgy, more maze-like and fraught with tension than I was expecting. The nose is fascinating. Fruit that deepens from redcurrant to cranberry. Wild plum skins. It builds and builds in the mouth. Beautiful texture. Fragrantly peppery and the fruit is delicate and yet so certain. Lovely presence in the mouth and the wine unfurls, unfurls, unfurls. Real complexity. (TC)

 

White Castle, Reserve Pinot Noir 2019 Wales

17.5

Full bottle 1,159 g. Monmouthshire. Husband and wife team, Nicola was a nurse and Rob was a post-office manager. Winemaking is done by Three Choirs. Red sandstone, in a sheltered valley, 7 acres. Aged in French oak barrels.
Beautiful citrus notes on the nose. Red cherry soaked in blood-orange juice, liquorice, cordite. Sumac spices, black cardamom and nuttiness woven into the sour-cherry fruit. Ineffably elegant with an autumnal sous-bois senescence. A fine curl of woodsmoke trails the finish. Real finesse. Superb. It may well hold together for longer than I’ve suggested. (TC)