2012 John Duval Shiraz Eligo

(aged for a year in French oak barrels, 75% new): Glass-staining purple. Heady spice- and smoke-tinged boysenberry and cherry scents are complicated by suggestions of candied violet, licorice and incense. Vibrant and focused on the palate, with appealingly sweet, oak-tinged black and blue fruit flavors deepening and spreading out in the mid-palate. Deeply concentrated yet graceful and precise, conveying real energy and power. Silky tannins give shape and subtle grip to a strikingly long, seamless finish that leaves sappy blue fruit, vanilla and licorice pastille notes behind.

This is a vineyard selection, again with some Eden Valley fruit for freshness. Dense and a bit heavier than the Entity. Seems more marked by oak. Just a bit stodgy. (JR)

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2012 Eligo has a profoundly scented nose of crème de cassis, blackberry pie, licorice, dark chocolate and blueberry preserves against an earthy/meaty background of bacon fat, forest floor, beef dripping and black loam. The densely packed, full-bodied palate manages almost paradoxical elegance and restraint with velvety tannins and lively acid giving closure to the long, multilayered finish.