2020 Descendant | DMG

Dried berries, smoke, mushrooms and ink on the nose. Medium- to full-bodied with a juicy and fruity character. Muscular and agile. Dancing. This is shiraz with a touch of viognier and no new wood. Co-fermented. Drink or hold, but better in 2025. (07/2023)

Generous and spicy, with clove, cardamom and oregano accents to the huckleberry, boysenberry and wild blackberry flavors at the core. Reveals compact tannins that have appealing traction, but leave a velvety impression. Shiraz and Viognier. Drink now through 2029. 600 cases made, 125 cases imported.

- M.W.

The Descendant is a Shiraz Viognier blend, co-fermented. This year, the 2020 Descendant comprises 91% Shiraz and 9% Viognier; the vineyard is in Marananga and was planted in 1994, from cuttings form the RunRig vineyard. It matured for 20 months in second fill French oak barriques, previously used for the RunRig. In every way (price, vineyard source, cepage, maturation), this wine is a baby RunRig, although there remain some stylistic differences in the mouth. For one thing, this 2020 Descendant has been matured (as mentioned) in older oak, so the imprint of oak flavors is more subtle. While there is no denying that the texture has an extreme slick and polish (it is almost thick in the mouth, truly plush) from the high percentage of Viognier, the wine is pure and glossy and exuberantly fruit driven. The tannins, which exist very much within the wine, are savory and exotically spiced: star anise, clove, hints of cardamom, licorice, red dirt and iodine. This is very good, luxurious, enveloping, sybaritic, with lots going on.

- Erin Larkin (04/2023)