You might have read a little something about this wine in my report on Somewhereness, which Tawse attended and participated in … but let’s recap: Echos is named that way because the wine “echoes” their top-tier wine – same vineyards, same attention to detail, same hand harvesting and sorting, same low yield, same barrel ageing – just when it came time to select the “best” barrels these didn’t make the cut … or better yet, the others were a cut above. Whatever way you say it, this is still one amazing wine. It’s a 70/30 blend of Cab Franc and Merlot and is Tawse’s first attempt at bringing their wines into the “everyday bottle” price-category; and while the price is still a little up there, they do make a valiant attempt at making their wines more accessible to the masses. In that context, I say with this wine, they succeed admirably. The nose will be many things to many people because here we have blackberries, red licorice, cherries, cranberries and some light cinnamon aromas … The taste follows right along with much of the same, including the cranberries, cherries, red licorice and mainly red fruit flavours with the added bonus of vanilla-cola. Definitely some yumminess here. The finish is long lasting with hints of that 14-month oak ageing on the tongue. As for where to get this wine, forget the winery, this is a restaurant or LCBO only purchase. Subtitled “Bistro Red”, you’ll find this in fine restaurants or in Vintages come this fall – so be sure to not only keep your eyes open for it, but pick up a few bottles when you do see it. As an aside, the aging potential for this one is also very good – say 7-plus years easy.