Readers wanting a full-throttle, rustic, leathery red resembling an Australian Bandol should check out the 2001 The Twentyeight Road Mourvedre. A heady, deep ruby/purple-colored offering, it exhibits scents of blueberries intermixed with minerals, mushrooms, tree bark, and new saddle leather. Fashioned from a vineyard planted in 1918, it is a medium-bodied, deep Mourvedre revealing that wonderful old vine intensity. Give it 1-2 years of bottle age, and consume it over the following 10-12. Chester Osborn, the remarkable person behind this enormous array of both impeccably high quality and value-priced wines, deserves considerable accolades for what he is able to achieve at all price ranges. If you love Australian wines, d’Arenberg is a winery to seek out as these offerings all possess abundant soul as well as character. In short, the accolades that proprietor/winemaker Chester Osborn receives not only from The Wine Advocate, but virtually everybody in the wine world, are all well deserved.Importer: Rob McDonald, Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA; tel. (707) 258-9552