Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Thursday, January 27, 2022 - 100% old-vine Shiraz from 50-130 yo vineyards in the Ebenezer sub-district. Fermented in open-top fermentors, aged for 15 months in new American oak barrels. Bottled unfiltered. 14,5% alcohol. Tasted in a 2015-2002 Amon-Ra vertical.

Quite dense, rather opaque blackish-red color with an evolved brick-red hue. Quite powerful but also wonderfully fragrant and pretty classically styled nose of wizened cherries, some perfumed floral tones, a little bit of blackberry marmalade, light evolved notes of savory meaty character, a hint of mint jelly and a touch of petrol. The wine is dense, extracted and chewy on the palate with a full body and complex flavors of wizened dark berries and pruney dark fruit, some dried red cherry tones, light minty notes, a little bit of ferrous blood, a hint of meaty umami, a touch of gravelly minerality and subtly oaky nuances of caramel and toasted wood. The overall impression is very firm, structured and still a moderately tightly-knit, thanks to the high acidity and assertive, grippy tannins. The finish is concentrated, quite grippy and moderately evolved with very long and intense flavors of ripe blackcurrants and wizened blackberries, some evolved beef jerky tones, a little bit of minty greenness, light oaky notes of bittersweet dark chocolate, a hint of gravelly minerality and a touch of caramel.

A stunning, powerful and muscular vintage of Amon-Ra that isn't as much about power, fruit and concentration as it is about structure and depth of flavor. Although the wine is undeniably a big bruiser of a wine, it didn't feel as huge and monolithic as the other vintages did, but instead came across as slightly lighter and less extracted in character with more emphasis on acidity, structure and finesse. Although the wine is showing some age and has already developed some tertiary characteristics, it is still relatively youthful for its age and at 20 years of age it still feels like the wine could improve easily for another 5-10 years. Most likely this wine will drink just fine for much, much longer. Easily the best vintage in our vertical, although I must admit that the 2010 vintage wasn't that far behind. Priced according to its quality at 75€.

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