Australian wines (some of them, anyway) seem to have taken quite a beating in recent years, so I thought a note on this wine might provide an interesting discussion point. I acquired the bottle, along with some other assorted Australian wines, from an Aussie neighbor who moved back home for work-related reasons a month or so ago. It is a wine that I had several times after its release almost ten years ago, and I remember enjoying it then as a robust but seemingly not over-the-top Shiraz notwithstanding the stated abc of 15%. I used to think of it as a pretty good value at around $30.00 per.
Getting to the point of this thread, this wine is a really pleasant surprise. It seems not to have aged a day in the last decade, in that it still has vibrant red fruit and a considerable structure. There is a gamey, sort of grilled meat undertone to the flavor profile. The wine is not overtly sweet, and the alcohol remains unobtrusive. If I had to guess, I would say this wine has many years of life in front of it. I’ll also add that I am posting this on Day Three (I opened the bottle on Saturday), and the wine shows no signs of falling apart. Needless to say, this wine has out-performed my expectations and has me thinking about reacquainting myself with wines from Australia.