I don’t know anything about One Tree Hill. I don’t think the bottle I consumed has anything to do with Scaffidi Wines, which uses “One Tree Hill” as a label on some of its products. The back label identifies it as a Hunter Valley wine made “under the supervision of Len Evans.” It happened to be on sale for $5 at the local First Choice. I’d be interested to know more about its origins.
A dense purple-red colour, still youthful. The nose initially showed dominant raisin-like notes and assertive vanilla oak. Then some complexities: prunes, fresher red fruit, some black pepper and clovey spice. If you can get over the dried fruit notes (which, I admit, aren’t always to my taste), there’s some good intensity here. It is not, however, a lightfooted aroma profile.
The entry shows a slippery-slidey mouthfeel that lands on the mid-palate with more vanilla oak, raspberries, dried fruits. Quite intense, yet clumsy and oak heavy too. Low in acid and tannin, this wine’s structure steps back to place full bodied fruit at centre stage. The after palate is spicy but tapers quickly to a short-ish finish.
I’m not going to complain too much over a $5 wine, especially one that is full of flavour. The flavours, though, seem stressed, perhaps a result of the very dry 2003 vintage in the Hunter. Those raisin/prune notes, as well as the assertive oak, don’t mesh well with my sense of Hunter Shiraz or, more broadly, of what I enjoy drinking. On the other hand, this is very clearly not an industrial product, showing character (including what one might classify as faults or markers of a difficult vintage) and generosity. Perhaps one should be grateful for that fact alone.
One Tree HillPrice: $A5Closure: CorkDate tasted: February 2008