Jancis on Beryna

On August 5 Jancis Robinson wrote an article about the 2003 Beryna --
";The wine itself is certainly not overpriced at $12.99 and it struck me as a first-class example of the sort of well-made, richly-flavoured reds that are now being made carrying all sorts of appellations that we might previously have associated with irredeemably old-fashioned, oxidized, over-alcoholic, soupy wines. (I did taste the 2002 vintage of this wine and found it a
little too alcoholic and a little too oaky.) Alicante is hardly in wine’s Hall of Fame, is it? Yet here, from old vineyards at over 550m/1,800 ft above the Mediterranean, is a wine offering a great mouthful of flavour, well-balanced, based on the onastrell/Mourvèdre that dominates vineyards down this Mediterranean coast but with 40 per cent of Tempranillo with a bit of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. ...
Monastrell can often be too strong, too sweet and dangerously
animal-flavoured here but this is concentrated rather than sweet with good balance and well judged oak which is, apparently, a mixture of American, French and Russian. When tasting wines all over the world at the moment, I often pick up what seems to be a strange (as in unfamiliar rather than unpleasantly bizarre) nuance that sometimes turns out to be some eastern European oak – a certain spiciness combined with some rigidity is the best way I can describe it – but I didn’t pick it up on this wine, so powerful is
the fruit. Yet the overall impression is long and satisfying.";