2017 Entity

Few winemakers in the Barossa have the experience of John Duval, who spent 29 years at Penfolds, 16 of them as chief winemaker. While at Penfolds, Duval maintained the venerable house’s style of structured wines that rewarded, if not demanded, patience. With his own project, launched in 2003, Duval’s personal style has emerged. These wines show more forward, fruit-driven character than those that he made at his old job, still showing plenty of depth and structure but never coming off severe. Duval’s current set of releases are among the best that I have ever tried from him, and there’s a new, upper-tier bottling, Integro, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend that debuted with the 2017 vintage. Predictably, there isn’t much of it.