Petit Verdot Wines

It's a smorgasbord of Geoff! Geoff Hardy wines that is, with this mixed dozen combining a whole collection of wines made by Geoff Hardy under a range of different brands. With everything from aromatic and juicy K1 Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc, t...

Deen De Bortoli created his Vat Series with the idea of developing a range of delicious, full-fl avoured wines at an aff ordable price. Deen personally selected the blends and chalked the numbers on the vats to identify them. The Vat Series incl...

Pirramimma are famed for producing Australia's first petit verdot in 1994, so they are the 'go to' guys for the variety. Petit verdot always has brilliant colour, and the nose of this version shows lots of brambly black fruits, slight florals and ...

Appearance: Deep rich red, with strong crimson meniscus. Nose: A rick, complex array of black cherries, dark plums and spices. Palate: Enticing spice and a trace of mulberry with attractive background oak. Food: Mild beef dishes, lamb and str...

The Echelon range from Kingston Estate, are wines that illustrate their commitment to producing the best examples of varieties from regions they believe in. This fascinating wine goes to show their utter belief in Petit Verdot, a variety that is r...

Petit Verdot adds backbone to blends and provides a structural spine. That means on its own it makes for an interesting wine. This one from Hunter boutique winery Capercaillie demands your attention and demands some hearty food to do it justice. I...

In French it means ‘little green one’, but we rarely see Petit Verdot as a straight variety as it’s commonly blended into Bordeaux style wines, to lend colour and complexity. Bill Moularadellis of Kingston Estate was convinced the variety could pr...

Medium to full red colour, slight purple. Rather dull, herbal aroma, lacks freshness and vibrancy, and seems to have ripeness issues. Astringency is quite high, and the wine is simple, bold and a bit too shrill for me.

Deep red/purple colour. Rather raw coconut oak aromas, shrill and not very attractive: dominates the fruit. Same in the mouth, but does have some intensity and weight of flavour. Grip and length, too. A touch too bold and firm, though.

Deep purple/red, dark colour. Youthful, undeveloped dark berry fruit aromas with a herbal overlay. A bold, rather straightforward, solid wine with a rather clumsy, shrill obviousness and lack of charm. Obvious, rather aggressive tannins. Clumsy, u...

Deep, dark colour and a very ripe, somewhat 'dead fruit' aroma. Shrill, simple and unenticing. Rather basic. Clunky, aggressive tannins crowd the finish. Under-and-overripe syndrome.

Dark colour. Dusty oaky and bold, simple, very ripe fruit aromas. Jammy and leathery. Tangy added acid is the first thing I notice in the mouth, then rather hard tannins and a big presence without much subtlety or style. Jam to spread on toast.

One of the better examples varietal petit verdot. The colour is so dense and the nose so powerful. Spicy oak and dark plummy earthy nuances. Then you dig into the palate to reveal all manner of goodies. Dark concentrated fruit balanced with a spic...

So smooth and rich. This is an outstanding example of a straight varietal petit verdot a variety most commonly used as a blending component, Griffiths has been able to harness the tannins and fruit into a velvety seamless structure with some quali...

Deep, dark red/purple, very good colour. Intense, herbal and red fruit aromas, somewhat strident fruit and oak melange, with a decidedy sweet, almost porty taste. Masses of tannin, too. A big, obvious, but generous wine. A good barbecue red.

As we've said a few times in this book, we're generally fans of varietal petit verdot... but not always. It has enough grunt - there's lots of inky, blueberried flavour here - but it's gamey and bitter and, ultimately, difficult to enjoy. Its ta...