"No winemaker ever reveals their dosage recipe, and Joe Grilli carefully guards his secret. The dosage generally consists of a mixture of old red wines, some fortifieds like tawny style ports and Muscats, and perhaps a little aged brandy. We just have to guess.

This wine has an amazing nose. There are leathery and waxy characters alongside fresh ripe blueberry and red-currant fruit flavors. In addition there are some herbal notes like fennel and tarragon. There is also some charred oak in the very complex mix.

All these aromas appear in an extremely rich and multi-faceted wine. The fruit is clearly defined and perhaps the most apparent on the palate yet the leather and herbal are there to support the fruit.

A general criticism of sparkling reds is the tendency to dose up with a touch too much sugar or port which can prop up a wine thin on fruit. This wine finishes almost bone dry. The flavors at the back of the palate tend more towards savoury rather than sweet. The aged material in the dosage is even more important and noticeable with this wine. The resulting finish is extremely long."