Torbreck The Gask 2023 - Magnum

19+/20 - Matthew Jukes "Where on earth has this wine come from?  There is an answer!  It comes from a single plot on the eastern flank of Mount McKenzie, and it is lovingly tended by the Hearnden family!  Sixty-three years old in 2023, this wine is an outlier in the Torbreck portfolio because it is more of an anti-fruit missile than a Shiraz-soaked diva.  It is macho, bitter, unyielding, verging on masochistic and utterly drop-to-your-knees gorgeous.  The liquorice, smoke, crushed blueberries and sour rhubarb highlights skirt around a vault of cold, dark earth, and the core is unyielding and awesome!  It sits in tame one-year-old oak that dares not converse with its contents for fear of all-out war!  The oak is merely a convenient container for this warrior-like liquid to gather its thoughts before it breaks free and is then cunningly coaxed into the bottle.  The iron spine is all but visible through the glass, keeping this wine stiff, upright, proud, and powerful in the bottle. And when it is poured, stand back.  This is easily the most brocaded and resplendent The Gask of all time, with ravishing raw silk texture and dark chocolate cake dust coating.  I am in awe of this wine in the glass, and there is every chance it will snatch another half-point from my fist to add to its towering 19 if I look away even for the briefest moment."