Made from 100% Mourvedre, the 2009 The Twenty-Eight Road Mourvedre has a deep garnet color and notes of dried mulberries, fruit cake, mocha and baking spices with an earthy undercurrent. The palate offers mouth-filling dried berry and plum flavors supported by crisp acid and a medium-firm level of chewy tannins, finishing long and spicy. Drink this one now though 2018. The d’Arenberg winery is 100 years old with a fourth generation Osbourne in charge today of this now considerable operation. Graduated from Roseworthy College in 1983, Chester was expected by his father to change things when he took over the family business. Instead he went back to tradition rather than modernizing. In the d’Arenberg vineyards there is no cultivating, fertilizing or herbicides used – Chester compares these artificial means to growing plants hydroponically. Looking to continually improve the root systems of his vines, he rarely irrigates. Average yields are 1.7 tons per acre. “2011 was actually a great year for us,” Chester informed me. “We didn’t have any problems with rot.”Importer: Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA, www.oldbridgecellars.com