2025 Brioni’s Blend

What a juicy and gorgeously perfumed little blend this Brioni's Blend is. Perhaps in a world first (there is nothing like building the drama), the unity of Touriga, Grenache and Mencia (71/19/10) from Oliver's Taranga is a knockout.

The previous two releases were a blend of Mataro, Touriga and Shiraz with that combination being tipped on its head with more silky and glossy splendour bursting from your glass this time.

The lift Touriga brings is so pretty as it shines in all its glory here. Dried purple flowers and violets spill from the glass along with cherries and berry compote. Berry basket fruits are svelte and laced with delicious appeal. Fine spices wrap themselves around the palate doing concentric circles reaching out to a long and sustained finish. It's a wine that glides about with supreme ease and draining a few glasses is a ridiculously easy assignment. Give me it all.

Drink to five years. 95pts

- QWine

A black-fruited concoction with bilberry, juniper and black pepper spice. Bing cherries, plum and olive skin. Grenache gives the wine a highlight of red fruit and the boost of acidity, it’s quite soft and supple on the plate with a chew to the fine dusty tannins. Moreish and a hell of a good time. Drink now. 93pts

- Shanteh Wale, Winepilot

Brioni’s blend is somewhat itinerant, roaming through the percentages of components, but this year it heads further afield, with 71/19/10% touriga/grenache/mencía (previously touriga, shiraz and mataro), vinified separately, with the Iberian varieties as whole berries in closed tanks. Pitched as a joven style, matured in tank and old oak, this is a vibrant bistro red – floral, bustling with wild black and red berries, a little cherry cola, mint, morcilla and earth. Deliciously drinkable and somewhat moreish, this is engineered for the table, and with structure and the right amount of fruitful succulence to make it a very flexible companion. 93pts

- Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion