This Shiraz & Cab blend from Rosemount Estate is a product of the massive 1998 vintage, which provided all the heat and extraction that Australian winemakers love. This wine is starting to collapse on itself after thirteen years (it's not meant for long cellaring), but it still shows rich blackberry pie fruit with some vanilla and heavy tannin. 89 points; $45
I have always been a fan of Burgess because they favor nuance over extraction in their red wines (they are most known for this with their Cabernet Sauvignon). This Syrah is fruit-forward but nicely balanced, with good acid levels intact after seven years and soft edges on the finish. 89 points; $25
Our host, Scot McLernon, pulled this out of his cellar for the "Down Under" tasting.
Norm Page brought this monster, Shirvington Shiraz, to Scot McLernon's "Down Under" tasting in Aptos, CA. This bottling is what Aussie Shiraz is all about: lots of ripe fruit, lots of new oak, and high alcohol. Perfect for grilled red meat or hearty foods (i.e. spicy beef soup) that need a strong wine to stand up against.
Rich Johnson brought this $45 Mitolo Shiraz to Scot McLernon's "Down Under" tasting, and it raised some eyebrows for the wrong reasons. It was finished in French oak, which is rare for Aussie Shiraz (they overwhelmingly prefer American oak, which adds far more vanilla to the mix), but the fruit was picked at an overripe stage, which results in a very jammy -- almost syrupy -- final wine. The intentions were good, but the winemakers were unwilling to deliver a differentiated product to a marketplace that wants BIG shiraz...
Eric Porres has been smuggling these gems from Streicker into the United States (and our tastings) for years, and this one is especially interesting for a few reasons:
1) It shuns the Australian word for the varietal ("Shiraz").
2) It's unavailable in the United States (as of this writing).
3) It tastes like no other Syrah/Shiraz I've ever had from Australia.
Unlike the vast majority of Australian producers, Streicker uses French oak instead of American -- which eliminates the vanilla flavor that is often associated with Shiraz.
This wine is produced from vines that are 10 years old, and the young fruit is ripe but not overripe -- which lets the nuances express themselves (and they are considerable). My favorite is what I call "blue fruit", which I find to be one of the most rare flavors in red wine. Across all red wines, fruit flavors are typically associated colors, i.e.:
- Red Fruit = Cherry, Bing Cherry, Plum, Strawberry, Raspberry
- Black Fruit = Blackberry, Black Cherry, Boysenberry, Cassis
- Purple Fruit = a mix of red and black flavors
- Blue Fruit = Blueberry, Violet
The other producer that comes to mind when I think of blue fruit is Domaine de la Romanee Conti; nice company to be in!
When I'm in the mood for a Zinfandel, I want a big and bold one, and Williams Selyem's always deliver. I tasted this Bacigalupi at the bi-annual pickup weekend, and it's showing surprisingly well for such a young wine. Zinfandels tend not to improve much with age (beyond the first few years in the bottle); I try to drink them relatively quickly after purchase...
The 1998 vintage was an epic one in Australia, and this widely available (in supermarkets) Bin 128 from Penfolds is drinking past its prime (as you'd expect 13 years later). Still, it has not completely fallen apart -- it's overripe body has collapsed and turned into something more like blackberry pie (the American oak's vanilla flavors taste like the pie's crust!)
This was my first taste of Rendition's Zinfandel.
This was my first taste of the 'Masked Man' Syrah.
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