I ventured down to Callaghan vineyards a couple of weeks back to join Kent in barrel tasting.  If you’ve not done this before, it’s something that I highly recommend.  It not only offers a glimpse into the future of the wine, but gains you the privilege of insight directly from the vintner on the specifics from harvest to barreling.  

We tasted through the ‘09’s still in barrel first.  Just as a recap, the growing year was one of the best in recent memory, with less than normal rainfall and very warm daily temperatures with temperate cooling at night.  The result allowed for outstanding grape maturation, timely irrigation and little mold.  The barrel tasting I enjoyed in February of last year was very impressive, confirmed by my recent samples .   Barrel 1:  The blend of Verdelho and Symphony (a blend of Grenache Blanc and Muscat) offers a nose of white fruits and peach pit, a very upfront lemony and acid crisp white with nuances of almond.  Filtered with no malo, you get a squeaky clean and pure expression of what these grapes bring.  This should continue to evolve into a delightful wine.