Alkina Polygon No. 3 Grenache 2020

96 Points - Gary Walsh

Fantastic expression of the variety. It’s velvety, dry, seamless and complex. This is essence-of-the-earth stuff. Floral flings, meat notes, star anise, fragrant herbs and roasted nuts. Cherries too, lively and ripe without being overtly sweet. Everything here is expressed in the most harmonious and integrated of ways, like feathers on a wing of flavour, all combed the same way, in curled waves, flowing. Absolutely super.

94+ Points - Erin Larkin

Polygon 3 is grown on limestone, which brings elegance and minerality. Having just tasted a group of 2022 Grenaches, I was reflecting on the possibility that I might just prefer Grenache is two windows of drinking. Firstly, extremely young. The attractiveness of youth is almost impossible to resist. Secondly, five or more years in bottle. With Grenache, I find the fruit very quickly subsumed by characters of black pudding, blood, truffles and mushrooms—highly seductive but a total change of gear from the vibrancy of youth. Here, this 2020 Polygon 3 Grenache has had the edge of youth rubbed off of it, but it has not yet gained the secondary complexity of age. From a very warm and low-yielding vintage, this wine shows a brooding nature of pepper-rolled pastrami, charred sandalwood, pomegranate molasses and brine. There is some orange zest through the finish. The iron content of the soil accounts for the reduction at the beginning of this wine. Air releases this reduction, and it is a completely different wine now. In a hot year, such as 2020, it is crucial that the picking is executed exactly when it needs to be. It cannot be a day or two later. We lose everything. 680 bottles only.