"Sometimes when I'm drinking a wine I pick up my phone and send myself a text. When I picked up my phone the morning after an evening with this wine I had a text waiting with the words: tannin like twine. It's the wine of Mark Bulman, whose day-job is winemaker at Turkey Flat. Bulman Type is an individual project, born of his deep love of grenache. The day the Jimmy Watson Trophy was awarded to Turkey Flat Grenache was one of those rare-but-important days when the wine industry both got it right, and did itself a favour. This Gigondas is the type of wine Mark Bulman loves. I met with Mark Bulman last week and a more sincere person you never would meet. He was the negociant for this wine and he has negotiated – via the cape – a pearler of a first release. This is a wine with fruit like silk. It's all so seamless that picking out individual flavours is difficult, though clearly there are notes of roses, bunches of herbs, asphalt and smoked meats. But enough of that nonsense, let's get back to the real point of this wine, and that is the frame on which it is built. The thing about all the best buildings and houses is that you never need to be told that an architect was involved. So too with wine; all the best wines have exquisite bone structure. This is one such wine. Tannin screws through the wine like a bee sting. It's a wine of both character and charm, not to mention beauty."

Rated: 95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, Winefront June 2019.

Product of Rhone Valley, France.

ABV: 15%
Size: 750ml