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2003 Mitolo Shiraz G.A.M. - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (12/31/2009)
Unscrewed and poured on New Year’s Eve afternoon in my office with my staff to celebrate. This wine is holding up very well with excellent balance, fruit and spice. The mouth feel is very smooth with no tannic implosion but with a freshness of flavor. Whether I call it 92, 93 or 94 depends more on my mood than anything else. This time, we had the cheap glasses in my office so it suffered a bit from that, but the wine is still an outstanding wine with flavors worth enjorying without having to fight to find them. This is an outstanding wine that should not be classified as a fruit bomb - not that I don’t like fruit bombs - and is aging well. It is still very bright and fresh tasting. A few years ago, D’Arry Osborn (the man who created D’Arenberg) told me that he had tasted some 20+ year cellared wines in Australia (not his IIRC) with identical wines under cork and screwcap side by side. He told me that the wines with cork were on the down slope but that the screwcap wines were still bright and fresh. I think this 2003 GAM may be experiencing a similar freshness. I have some 2004 under cork, and one of these days I’ll have to try them side by side. (92 pts.)
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