I have been holding on to these wines since their birth, as I had found them to be rich and ripe, with good tannins however far too ripe and fruity for my enjoyment.
Until today; This is the first bottle I have opened in a coons age. Well 6 years to be exact, and guess what I believe this wine to be now perfect, the fruit has taken on soft oak tannins flowing across the palate, filling the mouth with a sense of old-world longevity and quality.
The wine is still quite bold, yet rather soft with good concentration and a dry richness with smooth oak tannins just peeking through on the nose and palate.
In the glass: the wine is inky, deep with the dark yet fading edge of age around the rim.
In the mouth: the wine displays hints of blackberry with layers of dusty fruit all finishing rounded with chocolate tannins. this wine has reached the stage to be enjoyed and appreciated by those of us lucky enough to find a bottle of this stuff stored correctly in a wine store or on a restaurant wine list, where unfortunately you will be paying through the nose for it.
I enjoyed this wine with a rack of lamb, as strange as this may sound.
Purely because Shiraz would not be my first choice for lamb. However because of the wine’s age with its dry tannins and oak lurking at the front of the plate, ready to engage the juicy red meat It was a marriage counselling moment made in South Melbourne rather than heaven!
Michael Lillis
