Tag Archives: Shiraz/Syrah

Cayuse Syrah 'En Cerise' 2005

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At first smell, all I could think was “hey, this doesn’t smell American at all!” Unlike every other Washington syrah I’ve smelled, this wine gives me flashbacks to the Red Baron wine bar in Paris where I spent two lovely evenings drinking my way through obscure French wine regions just a few months ago.

Surprisingly, the nose is brutally thin, very mineral, with a very faint hint of the warmer Washingtonian climate almost totally obscured by what I can only imagine is old world winemaking: instead of plush, Australian raspberry jam, what you get is cold, austere, frankly barnyardy (but not Brett-y) funk edged with dirt. It’s quite a shock, especially as I had expected something quite different: Cayuse are a tiny, boutique, mailing-list-only producer, and even if the winemaker is French, I had just assumed that this would be a big, lush syrah something like the (amazingly delicious) John Duval-produced Sequel syrah, which is apparently from Walla Walla as well, just as this wine is – and yet this Cayus wine is utterly different from Duval’s.

It’s when you finally treat yourself to a sip of this that the New World components become apparently: there’s a fullness, a thickness that I wouldn’t associate with traditional Rhône wine that’s a thrilling counterpart to the austerity of the nose. Flavors are mostly in the realm of cured tobacco, black fruits, dried cherries, and just a hint of sourness to keep it all in check; there’s also a kind of burnt sugar sweetness that isn’t sugar, just sweetness that’s delightful as well. The finish does stay around for a while, reminding me somehow of Victorian toiletries (and I mean that in a good way: it’s like a once-popular floral scent that went out of fashion shortly before your grandparents got married), with a wonderful wood-coffee smoothness that leaves you very, very happy that you got to drink some of this wine.

Cayuse
Price: $45
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2008

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 1998

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Mentholated violets dominate the nose, which is straight out of a heritage candy shoppe of the sort you’d find in the California gold country (or Ballarat, I suppose). There’s a very rich, liquid smoked chocolate, coffee nose as well; it somehow doesn’t smell particularly old. It also strangely reminds me of waterblommetjebredie, a South African stew with a peculiar indigenous plant in it that’s vaguely like weak spinach or strong cress; it’s a watery, slightly meaty, slightly green smell that’s appetizing for sure.

Initially disconcertingly acidic, length isn’t so great at this point in history, tapering off quickly to a sort of stewed prune aftertaste. It’s weirdly like dealcoholized port, not particularly delicious; if I had some inexpensive brandy around, I’d probably add some to the glass in hopes of creating something more palatable. Still, it’s interesting enough for what it is, not entirely dead yet, and oddly flavoursome. Over time, you get used to the shock of it and what you get is almost a lamington sort of deal: bright, rich red fruits, a certain coconut aspect, and the dark toasted chocolate from the barrels as well.

OK, ten minutes later and I’ve changed my mind: this is delicious.

Penfolds
Price: about US$16
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2008

Fun fact: This was one of the first bottles of wine I ever bought; back in the early days of eVineyard.com (the company that eventually took over Wine.com), they had a ridiculous deal where you could buy bottles of wine for a penny each or something (I really should go find the receipts and scan them), so I lined up a dozen coworkers and we all ordered discount wine. Given a business plan like that, it’s a miracle they’re still in business in 2008!

Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz 2007

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Many enthusiasts will be familiar with the reason for this wine’s existence. Clonakilla’s estate crop was devastated by the elements in 2007, prompting the release of this wine, made from non-Estate (though still Canberra region) fruit. A small amount of Viognier was cofermented here too.

Typical Canberra Shiraz on the nose, with a big hit of spicy red fruit that projects edgy sweetness alongside more elegant, savoury notes. This really is very spicy, with black peppercorns and more exotic notes that tend almost towards potpourri. Expressive, characterful and, to me, seductive.

The palate emphasises savouriness, relegating the sweet red fruit to an intriguing supporting role. Masses of flavour immediately on entry, there’s a good deal of acidity to tingle and refresh the tongue. The fact that it’s light to medium bodied, and quite angular in structure, only serves to intensify the fruit flavours, though it also suggests some time in bottle will be beneficial. There are crunchy red fruits, spice galore and a delicious barbecued meat dimension. Tannins are very fine and evenly distributed, such that there’s considerable dryness on the finish without any obviousness of tannin. Good extension through the after palate and finish.

I really like Canberra Shiraz so I suppose I’m biased towards this wine’s flavour profile and weight. Having said that, it’s an especially good example of the breed, perhaps lighter and more acid driven than some, but with ample flavour and good typicité. Really well priced.

Clonakilla
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2008

Tar & Roses Heathcote Shiraz 2007

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I bought this on the combined basis of a good write-up at the Wine Front site and my ongoing desire to spend less money on wine (it clocked in at a modest $15.20 at the local Dan Murphy’s). Ever in search of a bargain, we wine lovers. Let’s face it, though, wine is an expensive pastime. Sometimes I feel I’d be better off getting my kicks from composting or decoupage or, really, anything fundamentally inspired by recycling.

Happily, this Shiraz provides a lot of pleasure. There’s a lot going on in the glass and, if I were to provide a two word description (through brevity, for better or worse, isn’t one of my talents), it would be “well judged.” Everything clicks into place and feels right. It would seem overly calculated if it weren’t so tasty. The aroma profiles straddles sweet and savoury with aplomb, showing equal doses of sweet dark fruit, pepper, moist leafiness, minerality and bubble-gum oak. It’s hedonistic and inviting. As nice as it is, though, the palate takes things up a notch. Perhaps too much sweet fruit for my taste, but no-one could accuse this wine of lacking flavour. Medium bodied, this wine’s flavour registers early and flows elegantly to a mid palate awash with sweet fruit and savoury complexities. Delicious ripe blackberry takes over on the after palate and lingers through a satisfying finish. There’s something rather beguiling about the way this wine feels in the mouth. It’s elegant and beautifully supple and just tannic enough.

A bit of a fruit bomb, then, but just the wine to provide some relief after a hard day’s work. Drink now with comfort food and much pleasure.

Tar & Roses
Price: $A15.20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: October 2008

Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2005

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What with a couple of Barossa Grenache/Shiraz blends under my belt in the last few days, I thought it was time to return to the source with this reasonably priced wine. For a large production wine, the Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rouge seems to attract its fair share of enthusiasts’ attention. It has a reputation for over-delivering at its price point, and of responding well to some bottle age.

I tasted over two nights, as it was somewhat impenetrable initially and remained so through the first evening. Tonight, it’s still quite dense and brooding, but is revealing enough of its character to facilitate enjoyment and, more pertinently for me, explication. A nose that is both floral and inky, with black fruits, some very ripe black pepper and prickly, appealing minerality or perhaps tar. It’s all very tight and coiled, yet seems to me well balanced (for what it is).

The palate initially promises more generosity, and in a sense delivers this, but fundamentally remains quite tight. Wisps of sweet black fruit escape the wine’s predominantly savoury flavour profile before being dragged back into a mêlée of tar, pepper and puckeringly dry tannin. Before the tannin takes over, though, a silky smooth mouthfeel briefly registers and promises fine textural development. Flavour is reassuringly intense, and the structure seems especially well sorted, with good continuity throughout the wine’s line, and a lengthy, dry finish.

Despite its youth, I’m enjoying the quality and elusiveness of this wine and am contemplating the purchase of a few bottles to cellar over the medium (to perhaps long?) term. I want to see what unfolds with the persuasiveness of time.

E. Guigal
Price: $A19
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: October 2008

Teusner Joshua 2007

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Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz but no oak. This Barossa wine is made from old vine fruit in a fresh, approachable style. Tradition meets fast food, you might say, but in a good way.

Penetrating nose that, initially, is all about sweet red fruit, but that quickly gains complexity and savouriness. It ends up being a fresh, somewhat sharp amalgam of fruit, spice and something akin to fennel. Slightly feral or meaty, too. There’s an impression of good detail as well as some fruit depth to back up what is quite a bright aroma profile.

In the mouth, lots of flavour quickly delivered to the taste buds. The entry shows quite bright, almost aggressive acidity that builds as the wine moves through the palate. Although there are fairly relaxed tannins down the line, structurally this wine revolves around its acid. It provides sizzle and good flow, but also balances out the wine’s considerable fruit sweetness to the extent that one’s overall impression is of a savoury flavour profile. Crunchy red fruits, herb and aniseed all vye for attention here. It’s almost medicinal in a Dr Pepper sort of way, and some hints of dried fruits also emerge. A nice crescendo of intensity that peaks at the middle palate. If there’s a fairly sudden drop-off on the after palate, that’s ok, because all that acidity and bright fruit verges on abrasive, especially without food. It continues in this more subdued, plummy key and delivers a pretty decent finish, with perhaps the slightest glow of alcohol heat.

A good food style that’s certainly a lively drink. Try it with pasta or a robustly flavoured meat dish. Wines like this often strike me as “picnic” wines in that I can well imagine drinking it in accompaniment to bread, cheese and charcuterie.

Teusner
Price: $A24.70
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: October 2008

Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz 2005

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The cellar is well stocked with Tyrrell’s wines and a fair few make it through to this site. I can’t think of too many producers in the Hunter Valley with an equivalent portfolio of fine wines. It probably shouldn’t matter, but there’s also a lovely connection one feels when drinking the wine of an historic producer (or region). I guess that’s why retro labels live on and, in some cases, are enjoying a resurgence in (presumed) prestige.

None of which has much to do with the liquid in the bottle. Thankfully, it’s rather good. After tasting a few new release 2007 Tyrrell’s reds lately, I gave in to the urge to try a recent back vintage of the Vat 9. As an aside, I was at Dan’s the other day and saw bottles of the 2006 on sale. Didn’t this used to have more time in bottle prior to release?

A pungent, forthright nose that has changed considerably through the evening. It started off quite stinky, with perhaps some sulfur in addition to strong regional dirt and a dash of tart cherry fruit. Two hours later, there are cooked meats, almonds and more savoury red fruits, slightly liqueur-like in character. It’s like Chianti via Burgundy, but with freshly turned soil that’s all Hunter. Good detail.

A flavoursome entry that shows consistent line from nose to palate. There’s an edginess here, which is a function of structure tilted firmly towards acid. Not to suggest there are no tannins; in fact, they are a highlight, being fine, ripe and sweetly rich. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The fruit character, as per the nose, is quite liqueur like in its intensity and (contradictorily) its tart sweetness. Very much in the cherry spectrum, without the plummy depth of the 2006 and 2007 models, the fruit shows excellent complexity. Medium bodied, this wine seems to throw itself at all corners of the mouth with the intention of sticking around as long as possible. Acid sizzles along through the after palate, with a seamless segue into the aforementioned tannins. A long, long finish.

Bloody nice wine. The 2007 version is probably better, but I like this one for its transparency and detail. A fabulous wine with food. I’m going to leave the rest of my stash for a few years before retasting.

Tyrrell’s
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: October 2008

Glaetzer Wallace Shiraz Grenache 2006

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Barossa Valley reds aren’t terribly well represented in my cellar (or, by extension, in my posts to this blog), about which I feel vaguely irresponsible. It’s one of our classic red wine regions, after all, and the fact that I don’t often feel like drinking its wines probably says more about my lack of discernment than anything else. No matter — tonight I’m cooking a spicy pasta dish, and a fruit-driven red wine will be (I hope) just the ticket. Hence this Shiraz/Grenache blend.

Before I describe the wine, I must say a word in favour of the packaging, which is distinctive and classy. A nice alternative to retro/euro labels without descending into tackiness. An intense, pungent nose of baked clay/earth and spice. It smells like a hot Summer’s day, and I’d like to think the fruit experienced a fair few along its journey towards this bottle. There’s also a slightly volatile vanilla note and, of course, a whack of jammy red fruit. Somewhat complex, commendably regional and expressive of real personality.

Good line from nose to mouth, with a clean, immediate continuation of the aroma’s baked earth and fruit notes. The wine is lighter in body than I expected, and more acidic, all of which subverts an abortive expectation of this as a lazy fruit bomb. Not at all. Flavour is certainly generous, but there’s too much spice, earth and structure to allow complete relaxation in the mouth. It’s lively and bright, with acid and loose-knit tannins creating an almost crunchy mouthfeel. There is more red fruit and vanilla here, along with nut/bark-like spice notes. I wish there were a notch more intensity at the mid-palate. Good drive through the lifted after palate, with nary a dip or dodge along the way to a decent finish.

Good balance, complexity and distinctiveness, but little of the depth and three dimensionality of better wines. I admire such a strong sense of style in a wine at this price point, even if this means the wine will be necessarily (and happily) divisive. Lovers of Barossa reds needn’t hesitate.

Glaetzer
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: October 2008

Tyrrell's Vat 9 Hunter Shiraz 2007

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I didn’t buy any Vat 8 this year, so with this note I conclude my tastings of new release Tyrrell’s reds. Unlike the 4 Acres and Old Patch, this wine is still available from cellar door.

A riotously fragrant wine that, when first poured, smelled for all the world like a Central Otago Pinot. Sweet earthiness, though, gives the regional game away. I’m finding the aroma profile a little difficult to describe. It’s floral and shows confident, yet lightfooted, plum fruit, some spice and dustiness of the sort one usually associates more with neglected cupboards than wine. It’s quite high toned and complex, and (to me) delicious.

The palate continues the nose’s generosity. Tingly, fresh acidity hits the tongue and awakens it to a subsequent wave of bright red fruit and sweet spice. Body is light to medium, but intensity is considerable. Flavours of sour plum, spice and licorice allsorts coat the tongue, helped by a mouthfeel that moderates acidic prickles with a fine velvet caress. There’s some drop off on the after palate, as the wine’s acidity tends to overwhelm the fruit flavour somewhat. The finish, however, goes on and on.

It’s quite approachable now, but I suspect this wine will fill out in the most delicious manner with some bottle age. For my taste, and for all its complexity and sophistication, it needs some depth in the lower registers to be truly complete. That should come with patience on my part. The only real disappointment here is a label design that has abandoned its retro origins at time when a baroque aesthetic couldn’t be hotter. Shame.

Tyrrell’s
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Bannockburn Shiraz 1998

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This wine’s legend precedes it. For those not aware, the back label summarises its story: after hail destroyed Bannockburn’s 1998 estate Shiraz crop, a whole range of other wineries sent in their Shiraz grapes for inclusion in this wine. Hence the South Eastern Australia appelation. A real one-off cuvée and the sort of vinous curiosity that’s arguably more interesting to think about than taste.

The nose shows a flamboyant aroma profile of equal parts soil and aged leather, with some stale spice thrown in. To be honest, it comes across as a little funky and not especially clean, but to my taste these aren’t issues per se. Whatever your tolerance for wilder aromas, there’s no arguing this wine makes an immediate statement.

Good weight on entry, with slightly DMS-like blackcurrant fruit and good presence overall. Some stalky overtones establish the character and style of the wine. It seems full bodied at this stage. The mid-palate feels lush and resolved, but just as one relaxes into things, the after palate introduces quite drying tannins. These attenuate the wine’s nascent expansiveness and pinch its sense of scale. So its line is akin to a wedge, narrowing as it approaches the finish, and hollowing out somewhat in terms of fruit weight too. The finish feels a little “inside out,” as it’s dry with a notable absence of fruit weight.

Not an especially elegant wine, and perhaps past its best. I’m glad I tasted it, though. Wines like these add a welcome note of quirkiness to the local wine scene.

Bannockburn
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008