With Hart at Crystal Wine tasting.

This was supposed to be the highlight of the afternoon for me.

The wine is made using grapes from Harlan Estate, BOND, and Promontory. I was lucky to have tasted multiple vintages of the wine starting from its early few years, and saw the evolution of the label. And my, has the wine grown up. Right up to maybe the 2017s, the Mascot had this elegance and prettiness to it – super aromatic, supremely balanced, but perhaps lacking a little intensity and concentration. It seems the recent vintages no longer lack those.

In the glass: a deep dark ruby with purple tinge. Mid+ body.

On the nose: just pure intense blackcurrant, mild oak in perfect balance, graphite, eucalyptus. Intensely aromatic, well balanced. A beauty.

On the palate: at entry, palate coating and just intensely beautiful. Mid+ acidity. Fresh. You almost expect this finish to last forever,

And out of nowhere, it plummeted abruptly, and left behind this unpleasant hollow finish.
The staff mentioned that the 2020 was a challenging year.

I ended up grabbing the 2021 given that it was an exceptional year for the mother vineyards.