2000 Chain of Ponds Shiraz The Ledge

Community Tasting Notes (7) Avg Score: 94.2 points

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  3/20/2022 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 94 Points

  Solid deep colour, not looking as old as I thought it would.
  A little secondary and muted on the nose, but still with some ripe black fruit and woody herbs.
  Ooh, that's lovely. Soft and elegant on the palate, with great depth. Very integrated and open. Very long. Doesn't feel in the slightest bit "old," just in a really good place for drinking now.
  Still a touch of tannic structure on the finish.
  I was expecting this to be at or beyond the end of its life, at over 21 years old for a not particularly distinguished Ozzie shiraz, but it's really lovely.

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  6/3/2015 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 94 Points

  Deep, dark colour: it's lost any sense of youth, but there's no sign of any bricking or other sign of any particularly advanced age.
  Big nose with deep black fruits. On first opening it smelled a bit jammy and overripe, with some VA, but within minutes all that has blown off. A hint of peppery spice alongside roast meat and a hint of garrigue-y type herbs - think rosemary, thyme, lavender. Just a hint of floral lift too.
  Nice, smooth, rich attack. Very nicely integrated and balanced wine, with quite an elegant feel. Soft, sandy tannins come along on the finish. Very good length, with some greener flavours of black fruit and leafiness lingering long after.
  Impressed by this. It's 15 years old, but is showing no sign of needing to drink up in any rush whatsoever.

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  11/6/2009 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 90 Points

  Manchester Offline (Choice Bar & Restaurant): Herbes de provence and dried rosemary dominate the nose, along with some lamb fat. There's lots of dried herbal character on the palate too, along with a certain meatiness. In fact, this is quite simply roast lamb in a glass! A very interesting wine, at least in the context of these other syrahs/shirazes. It might be a bit odd on its own in isolation though.

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  6/1/2009 - jskuek wrote: 96 Points

  Excellent, I was worrying about this wine turning bad, however it is extremely balance and well structure, complex and fine tannin. You can find cigar, choc, cinnamon, toast all nicely integrated and provide long finishing. I am going to grab the last bottle from this shop tomorrow.

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  5/4/2009 - tenorselbow wrote: flawed

  I'm assuming that this was mildly corked as the wine never had much of a nose or taste (unlike the previous bottle of the same vintage I tried a couple of years ago), even after six hours of decanting.

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