The 2019 Kirwan has an understated, cedar and graphite-tinged bouquet, a little Pauillac-like in style, nuanced and gaining intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with taut tannins, focused, tensile and linear with plenty of sapidity towards its oyster shell-tinged finish. Very precise and very sophisticated, this is the best Kirwan in many years - maybe a benchmark for the estate. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
- Neal Martin (01/2023)