Sirromet, located about twenty minutes from my house, is a winery I’ve driven past on many occasions but never visited. I thought I’d browse its website as part of writing this note, and in doing so discovered a rather large range of wines. Whilst there is a vineyard at the cellar door facility in Brisbane, I gather its fruit comes primarily from vineyards located in the Granite Belt region, near Stanthorpe. This wine, a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, is part of Sirromet’s entry level “Perfect Day” range, and is made from Granite Belt grapes.
I tasted this over two evenings, which is just as well as the wine improved markedly overnight. At first, I wasn’t terribly inclined to taste in depth; it struck me as all stalk, with very little underlying fruit. The second night brings things somewhat back into balance, although I still think the stalky/vegetal notes are overplayed. Funky, prickly aromas of stalk, with some spice and a hint of red fruit. It’s different, but whether in a good way will depend on your tolerance for greener flavours. The palate is quite bright, with more funk and stalk overlaying subservient yet attractive red and black berry flavours, and powdery vanilla oak. The wine veers from astringent greenery to sweet oak, without the depth of fruit to harness and make sense of this progression. Structure is quite well judged, with balanced acid and just enough dry tannins to round off the unremarkable finish.
I don’t have enough experience with this label or region to know how this wine sits in the overall scheme of things. It’s certainly interesting enough in its way, and I’d prefer to drink this, flaws and all, to a mass-produced wine of technical correctness but absolutely no character.
Iggy Pop fans perhaps?
GW
Possibly, although I couldn’t detect any notes of poppy. 🙂
Perhaps just a general “Igginess” then.
GW
I’ll go with that. This opens, you realise, a whole other dimension to tasting and writing about wine — the celebrity metaphor. Damn, you are like the wind in front of the cutting edge. I can’t keep up.
Good to see some QLD wine reviewed. Perfect Day is at the bottom end of Sirromet’s wines. For quality on the granite belt between $20-$30 I’d be interested on your thoughts on Ravens Croft Reserve Cab Sav (2002 if any left or the 2005) or Boireann The Lurnea (2006, haven’t tried the 07. Its going straight to the cellar. Peter Stark’s wines are generally quite tannic and nedd some time to evolve plus 07 wasn’t his own fruit due to frost) Cheers Julian. Happy to have found this site. Some more people to learn from 🙂
Thanks for the comment and suggestions, J, much appreciated. As I mentioned, I don’t have deep experience with Queensland wines, but I’d like to try more (being a resident and all) and will seek out your recommendations as a starting point.
Cheers,
Julian.