Squawking Magpie The Gravels Syrah 2014 4.5-star

The impenetrable, inky-dark colour saturation is the first thing that gets you with this wine, it’s incredibly dense, dark, a stormcloud in a glass.   Perfumed with blackcurrant, cherry and pepper-dusted damson plums, the nose is exciting , spice-driven and has smoke around the edges.  Elegantly structured, the core of this wine is dark fruit, exotic spices and a seam of dark cocoa carries its savoury concentration through to the long, pillowy finish where earthy, graphite-like layers appear.     It has freshness and verve, nice ‘chew’ and loads of chutzpah.