Shiraz

E&E Black Pepper Sparkling Shiraz 2004

October 12, 2009 By Shea Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving dinner is one of the most challenging meals to pair effectively with wine given the myriad flavours and textures on offer at a traditional banquet. Sweet and tart cranberry sauce, rich and savory gravy, juicy and slightly gamey turkey meat, vegetables, glazes, etc. etc. If anything, an effective wine pairing will have to also be an effective palate cleanser to allow each course to highlight its special nature.

With all of this in mind I decided to go with something bubbly, given that bubbles tend to cleanse the palate. However, traditional delicate champagne might clash with some of the robust flavours on the Thanksgiving table, so instead I decided to go for something equally robust: an Aussie sparkler.

E&E is a highly respected and excellent producer from the Barossa Valley who make their signature Black Pepper Shiraz in a bold but balanced style. This sparkling shiraz is made from the same fruit and is produced sur lie in the traditional Champagne method.

The nose on this was fruity and expressive with tons of black fruits and cassis. The palate was phenomenal in its fruitiness and its elegance with tons of black berries, cassis, and a bit of pepper all held together with considerable acidity. The residual sugar was reasonably high, but the equally high acidity and carbonation balanced the sugar very well. Further, that bit of sugar also helped the wine pair with many of the savory dishes, acting as a kind of supplementary cranberry sauce. With all of these robust but balanced flavours, coupled with the festive bubbles, the wine was the perfect Thanksgiving wine for me, and also one of the best pairings I’ve had in the past year. Overall, a highly recommended experiment for anyone looking for the right wine for that holiday meal. This is also a heck of a wine by itself, and probably the best sparkling shiraz I’ve had from Australia.

Excellent
$70 at BCLDB

Filed Under: $60+, Australian Wine, Excellent, Shiraz

Philip Shaw No. 89 Shiraz Viognier 2004

August 13, 2009 By Shea Leave a Comment

Shiraz Viogniers are all the rage in Australia right now – but not too many of them are grown and produced in Orange, New South Wales like this wine. Distributed by the mamoth Lion Nathan, nonetheless this wine rises above typical commercialized shiraz/viognier blends with a more Northern Rhone like balance of finesse and robustness.

The nose here had coffee, violets, blackberry and boysenberry and was rich and masculine similar to syrah made in Cornas. The palate was nicely balanced, with spice, coffee, chocolate, and blackberry. Overall a masculine wine with firm acidity and without the ‘prettyness’ (or lightness) you can find in most Aussie shiraz/viogniers.

Very Good+
$40 ($28 on sale) at BCLDB

Filed Under: $40-$60, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Petaluma Shiraz 2006

June 24, 2009 By Shea Leave a Comment

I have generally enjoyed the wines from Petaluma, being particularly impressed by their Coonawara red blend. This shiraz is certainly not your typical Aussie fruit bomb. The nose on this shiraz from the Adelaide Hills had cassis, chocolate and eucalyptus, almost like some California Cabernets. The palate picked up many notes from the nose, including eucalyptus and chocolate, adding a secondary line of woodyness.

This was well rounded and extremely smooth drinking with very fine, almost undetectable tannins. With moderate sweetness and a good flavour package this wine is very solid, and while its not going to send you into the stratosphere, it will be a great sipper and pleasant with many types of food: everything a simple and tasty wine needs.

Very Good
$35 at BCLDB

Filed Under: $30-$40, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Greenock Creek Alice’s Block Shiraz 2000

March 11, 2009 By Shea Leave a Comment

One of the other amazing elements of California’s wine scene is the ability to buy vintage bottles of wine with superb provenance at reasonable prices. I picked this particular bottle up online at a price about half of what the recent vintage is selling for in Canada.

On the nose this was herbacious, with strong eucalyptus notes and strong woody elements with subtle cassis and vanilla rounding out the quite extensive olfactory package. The palate had similar flavours, but with a bright high acid opening that mellowed out in the mid-palate and lengthy, consistent finish. Balanced, but definitely made for food. Somewhat like walking out into the sun, being blind for 1/2 a second and then laying down for a lazy warm day on the grass. Well done, and superb with truffled Humbolt Fog goat’s cheese (which makes me think this would go with a wide variety of foods).

Very Good+

$45 at Liquid Wine and Spirits

Filed Under: $40-$60, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Ben Glaetzer Godolphin Shiraz/Cabernet 2005

December 6, 2008 By Shea Leave a Comment

Catch up time. I drank this quite some time ago – in fact, before I did the Premium Aussie tasting. Sometimes getting all the notes down can get a little overwhelming! Ah the trials and travesties of a wine blogger.

A nose of plum, chocolate, licorice and spice opened into a sweet and fruity palate with noticeable vanillan oak notes. A very extracted wine, but not artificial tasting like Mollydooker. Fruity, solid acidity, and tons of flavour. Good stuff, but highly overrated by the likes of Parker. I thought the Amon-Ra was vastly superior at $15 more.

Very Good+
$70 at BCLDB

Filed Under: $60+, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Penny’s Hill Footprint PHV Rows 9-14 Shiraz 2004

November 24, 2008 By Shea 3 Comments

Here we are back in McLaren Vale so soon. Penny’s Hill is a little producer that has pushed a niche for itself in the Vancouver market – a well deserved one – with their rich good value red dot shiraz. This is their high end bottling made from a small number of rows from their top vineyard site.

Before I get into the wine, I have been wondering recently how many professionals have a desire to give up their usual careers and pursue wine not just as a hobby, but as a full fledged ‘job’. I’ve considered this. However, I am yet to be convinced, despite certain urges, for the following reasons:

1. I ultimately want to have a positive social impact with my work, and while wine does produce an abundance of happiness, I don’t feel that I could make any special impact in this respect in the wine business.

2. I am afraid that if wine were to become a career it would lose its pizzaz and poetry. And, in the end, that’s the entire reason I’m into it.

3. I prefer to be able to afford to buy the good stuff for my personal enjoyment rather than having sips at tasting events – which no doubt once you become successful is no longer a concern.

I’m curious to hear any readers’ opinion on this issue.

Now, back to my personal non-professional enjoyment of the Footprint shiraz. This has a rich concentrated almost southern rhone-like nose with some earth, cherry, wood and a little mushroom. The palate, however, is purely Australian and very McLaren – big creamy rich plum, cassis, cherry, and vanilla. I get a mushroomy note on the long and full-bodied finish, but maybe I’m on crack. This is certainly a fruit bomb, but a dang good one with great length, fine ripe tannins, and intense but not abrasive concentration. Needs 5 more years.

Very Good+ to Excellent [I think this will be great with age]
$65 at Steamworks Liquor Store

Filed Under: $60+, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Two Hands Brave Faces 2006 Shiraz/Grenache

October 24, 2008 By Shea Leave a Comment

A Barossa wine from the well-known Australian ‘negocient’ Two Hands. This is another big american-style bruiser at 15.5% alcohol, although I thought it did a decent job with that percentage. The nose was very much classic Barossa shiraz with chocolate cherry and a touch of gameyness. This was very potent, but had excellent flavour concentration. Ultimately this is a big fruit blast without an exaggerated sense of extraction. The big complaint at this price point is that the wine is somewhat thin in the complexity (not the intensity) of its flavours.

Very Good

$40 ($28 on sale) at BCLDB

Filed Under: $40-$60, Australian Wine, Grenache, Shiraz, Very Good

Plantagenet Shiraz Great Southern 2003

October 10, 2008 By Shea Leave a Comment

I drank this wine a while ago. Now, however, I can’t help but feel that my wine habbits will go more towards sale items such as this with the crashing markets and depreciating Canadian currency. My once exciting 5 month exchange to UC Berkeley is shaping up to cost considerably more than I expected. With mounting student debt levels, it’s time for some serious budget wine. I suppose luckily I have some stock to go through before needing to buy anything more.

On to the wine. I found this shiraz to have a pretty unique flavour profile for Australia, with a nose of meaty dark fruits. The palate was quite layered, and I detected plum, chocolate, cinnamon, pepper, and indian spices. My big complaint, however, is that the alcohol was too hot and unbalanced with the rest of the wine. This makes me feel this particular vintage was unpolished, which is a shame because I think there is great potential here. Definitely something to look for and an indication of the quality to be had from Western Australia (the Great Southern region to be exact).

Very Good

$28 on sale ($40 regular)

Filed Under: $30-$40, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Very Good

Mollydooker ‘The Boxer’ Shiraz 2006

September 20, 2008 By Shea 5 Comments

Here we have what I would call, extending the metaphor from the last post, a Cyclops of a wine. Brute, stupid, singular, one dimensional and easily fooled. Mollydooker is a sensation in the US wine market, largely created by massive ratings by Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator. I do not feel as much vitriol against these reviewers as others, but I have found that I very much disagree with Parker’s ratings in Australian wine. The wine advocate gave this bottle 94 points.

While equivalent in power to the Gigondas below, this is essentially the opposite wine. Big chocolate, cassisn, vanilla and a touch of Eucalyptus belie the creamy, artificial, cough syrup texture of this highly manipulated wine. Very fruit forward, and somewhat alcoholic (at 16% abv), this is too sweet and over the top. It is, in a sense, the coca-cola of wine. I think if you like this approach to wine making, this is archetypical of the very sweet approach to wine making and a lot of people will certainly enjoy this. For me, however, this type of wine is exactly why I got out of Australian wines years ago (only to return later to discover all the other wonderful offerings from that region of the globe). I hate to say it, but: yellow-tail on crack. This is like returning to the orphanage you ran away from all those years ago, only to find that sister Molly is still beating you over the head with a stick – wine for the masochist.

Good+

$35 at BCLDB

Filed Under: $30-$40, Australian Wine, Good, Shiraz

Penfolds Bin 389 2005

June 3, 2008 By Shea 5 Comments

I picked up this wine on a high recommendation that this was Penfold’s return to form on 389 – the wine also known as the ‘mini-grange’. I am glad I followed up on the suggestion.

This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz and as such the nose combines smooth cassis and moderated, but very pretty Eucalyptus. The nose exploded upwards from the rim with one of the most powerful yet elegant bouquets I’ve nosed in a long while. The palate was long and complex with a full mouthfeel and lots of vegetable, rich black fruit, tar and licorice. I also sensed some earth and minerals here, but in a distinctly Aussie style.

This wine elevated itself above typicity of style while bringing in tons of flavour, terroir, and a truly unique style. One of the best wine’s I’ve tasted, and at an excellent price right now in BC.

Excellent+

$50 at BCLDB

Filed Under: $40-$60, Australian Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Excellent, Shiraz