Orin Swift Papillon 2018

You can express a lot via your knuckle tattoos. Your right hand could communicate 'Love' while the left reads 'Hate.' You could tell the world you were 'Hand Made' (whatever that means) but mostly, knuckle tattoos let everyone know, you have no intention of getting a job in a bank.

Few people use hand tattoos to express their love for top quality Bordeaux blends from the Napa Valley however, which we think is a shame. The person on the label of Orin Swift Papillon was clearly so enamoured with this highly aromatic wine, with notes of ripe black cherry, anise, liquorice, shaved dark chocolate, rosemary and charred meat, that they had let the entire world know about it. An excellent use of skin we say. In fact, everyone at Oddbins emulated the protagonist of this wine label and got matching Papillion tattoos, we would show you but they're all in a rather intimate place...

Orin Swift was started in 1998 by Dave Phinney and has since grown into one of the most renowned boutique wine brands in the US.

The wines of Orin Swift represent the best of modern Californian winemaking, they’re a move away from tradition to a more handsy, feel based approach to winemaking, where the accepted stylistic requirements are thrown out the window.

The philosophy at Orin Swift is simple – find the best grapes they can, let them hang and ripen, and then express the profile of the fruit in the boldest, most expressive way possible. The result is wines that are unapologetically high in alcohol, wines where monstrous sweet fruit concentration is to the fore and a small, considered use of old French barrels is only there to season and soften the wines.