For 2010, though, the Shiraz remains the best release. The nose here is expressive and smells of artificial vanilla essence, a slightly edgy sappiness and gobs of sweet, somewhat stewed fruit. The fruit is red and black, ranging from plums to blackberries, all arguably overripe, showing a jammy rather than fresh fruit vibe. To my palate, more freshness would have led to a better aroma profile, along with more subtlety of oak character and volume.
The palate is again very generous, fruit driving a flavour profile that backs up with abundant, rather edgy oak and some pretty spiky acidity. I like the wine's consistent volume through its line; there's certainly plenty of fruit to go around. Again, fruit character has a question mark over it, with an overripe edge contributing hardness and detracting from the suppleness this wine occasionally hints at but never achieves.
A pretty good quaffer, then, but not quite up to the same year's Shiraz.
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