Torbeck Wines

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Cuvee Juveniles - The Wine Advocate (Robert Parker)

2009

A blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Shiraz and 20% Mataro, the 2009 Cuvee Juveniles came from vines averaging 90 years old and yielding around 22 hl/ha.  Deep garnet-purple, it has a profoundly fruity nose, giving fragrant notes of warm raspberries, strawberries, some funk and earth plus a little tar and black pepper.  Full-bodied, it offers a medium level of silky tannins, crisp acid to balance the concentrated fruit and a long finish.  Delicious now, it should remain fresh and vibrant through 2015+.
Drink: 2010 - 2015 | Date Tasted: Oct 10

 91
  The 2008 Cuvee Juveniles, a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Shiraz, and 20% Mataro raised in tank. Dark ruby-colored, it presents an alluring aromatic array of spice box, incense, and black cherry compote. Ripe, sweet, pure, and easy to understand, this forward, friendly effort can be enjoyed now and over the next 3 years.
Drink: 2009 - 2012 | Date Tasted: Oct 09
2007 The 2007 Cuvee Juveniles is a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mataro, and 20% Shiraz aged totally in stainless steel. Dark ruby-colored, it has a fragrant nose of black cherry and wild blueberry. Elegant and friendly on the palate with plenty of succulent blue and black fruits, it will provide pleasure over the next four years.
Torbreck, under the leadership of owner/winemaker David Powell, remains a Barossa Valley benchmark as well as one of the world’s leading wine estates.
Drink: 2009 - 2013 | Date Tasted: Feb 09		 91
2006 The 2006 Cuvee Juveniles is a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mataro, and 20% Shiraz. The final assemblage was pieced together from over 100 individual components yielding a dark ruby-colored wine with an expressive bouquet of damp earth, leather, spicy cranberry, raspberry, and black cherry. This unoaked wine has excellent depth, light tannin, ripe, spicy red and black fruit flavors and a long finish. Drink this great value over the next 6 years. Torbreck, under the leadership of owner/winemaker David Powell, remains a Barossa Valley benchmark as well as one of the world’s greatest wine estates. The top cuvees are limited production and expensive but there are also some outstanding values in the portfolio. With regard to the current vintages for the Barossa red wines, David Powell states “2004 is more savory while 2005 has more purity and definition. 2004 is more classic, 2005 will take longer to come around.”
Drink: 2007 - 2013 | Date Tasted: Oct 07		 91
2005 A terrific buy, the 2005 Juveniles is a tank-fermented and aged blend of Grenache (60%), Shiraz (20%), and Mataro (20%) made from 40-150-year old vines. Provencal-like notes of garrigue, pepper, spice, sweet cherries, and black currants jump from the glass of this elegant, medium-bodied effort. With superb fruit as well as purity, and no hard edges, it can be enjoyed over the next 2-4 years.
Drink: 2006 - 2010 | Date Tasted: Oct 06		 91
2004 A noteworthy buy is the 2004 Juveniles, which represents Torbreck’s version of a Barossa Valley Cotes du Rhone on steroids. A 6,000-case, tank-fermented and aged blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, and 20% Shiraz, it exhibits peppery, sweet blackberry and cassis fruit, kirsch liqueur, and spice box aromas. A sexy, heady wine with loads of glycerin, medium to full body, a silky texture, and a meaty, long finish, it should drink well for 2-4 years. David Powell, unquestionably one of the world’s finest wine producers, has an uncanny ability to discover old vine Barossa vineyards, and then secure long term contracts for their fruit. It is amazing that such high quality sources have not already been plucked by Australia’s giant wine corporations. Torbreck’s wines continue to get better and better, combining the old vine ripe fruit of Barossa with a European sensitivity to elegance and balance. The finest wines in this portfolio are pricy, but David Powell delivers some remarkable reds and whites at prices that are more than fair for the quality in the bottle.
Drink: 2006 - 2007 | Date Tasted: Oct 05		 90
2003 The 2003 Juveniles is a virgin, unoaked blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, and 20% Shiraz. There are 6,000 cases of this peppery cuvee that offers up notes of roasted meats, saddle leather, and kirsch liqueur in a medium-bodied, well-defined, exuberant, flavorful format. It tastes like a high class Cotes du Rhone from the ocean of vineyards known as the Plan de Dieu in the Vaucluse. Drink this knock-out red over the next 2-3 years.
Drink: 2004 - 2007 | Date Tasted: Oct 04		 90
2002 The unwooded blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, and 20% Shiraz, the 2002 Juveniles, is a crunchy, deliriously fruity red offering aromas of kirsch liqueur, pepper, and spice box in a fruit-driven, full-bodied style that is immensely captivating as well as satisfying. It is meant to be enjoyed over the next 5-6 years.
Drink: 2003 - 2009 | Date Tasted: Aug 03		 90
2001 The 5,200 case cuvee of 2001 Juveniles is a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Mataro (Mourvedre), and 20% Shiraz aged completely in tank. This fruit-bomb exhibits copious quantities of raspberry, cherry, and blackberry fruit, along with hints of Asian spices and Acacia flowers. Sweet and expansive (from concentration, not sugar), succulent, fleshy, and hedonistic, this sexy, fruit-driven, New World red will drink well for 5-6 years, possibly longer.
Drink: 2002 - 2008 | Date Tasted: Oct 02		 89
2000 If readers want to know what the quintessential Australian fruit bomb tastes like, check out the 2000 Juveniles, a tank-fermented blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Shiraz, and 20% Mourvedre. Bursting at the seams with juicy blackberry, cherry, and currant fruit, it offers copious quantities of spicy, peppery characteristics, sexy, seductive glycerin levels, and a creamy texture that defines the word hedonism. It is not going to make old bones, but for drinking over the next 2-3 years, this is a fabulous, fruit-filled effort from Barossa. Anticipated maturity: now-2005. This wine not only makes for compelling drinking, but it is also a huge amount of fun, and isn't that what it's all about? If I had to give an award to Australia's finest winemaker in 2001, it would be hard not to consider David Powell.
Drink: 2001 - 2005 | Date Tasted: Jun 01		 90
1999 The 1999 Juveniles (60% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, and 20% Shiraz), from tiny yields of 1-2 tons of fruit per acre, is an explosive fruit bomb. It almost has a "nouveau" character, but there are such levels of concentration, body, glycerin, and extract that it transcends that category into something unlike anything tasted previously. Opaque purple-colored, with a celestial perfume of jammy black fruit and floral scents, this dense, monsterous, velvety-textured wine is a total hedonistic turn-on. It is impossible to resist, and should continue to drink well for 7-8 years.
Drink: 2000 - 2008 | Date Tasted: Feb 00		 94