Community Tasting Note

• joraesque wrote: 92 points

  April 17, 2015 - Smells akin to a Northern Rhone right after opening, with a strong effervescent component on the palate like young juice that's just finished fermenting. With oxidation it gains complexity, revealing notes of blueberries, blackberries, hibiscus, hints of cocoa nibs, and some mulling spices particularly on the finish where the red clay soil also comes out strongly. After 25 minutes the flavors on the palate transition to nuttiness and horse saddle for a brief moment, then cedar notes become dominant on both the nose and palate, with some brief white peppercorn on the backpalate; also Calvados-like flavors. Upon refilling the glass 35 minutes in the profile of the wine in the bottle turned out to be a mix between the early "just fermented" stage and the latter cedar development, with understated notes of limestone and sandstone on the nose and an increasingly tart component on the palate, somewhere between dry hibiscus and sweetened dry cranberries.
  About 100 minutes in it then shifted to a much dryer and leaner flavor profile driven by notes of red pepper and bitter cherry Jell-O. At this point the juice started heading downhill.
  A wine to contemplate for certain overall, with a surprisingly low 13.5% ABV for an Aussie, which explains why this isn't labeled as Shiraz.

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1 Comment

• asajoseph commented:

  4/22/15, 7:44 AM - I have had a similar experience with the 'effervescent' nature of this wine. It worried me, frankly - almost as if the wine had undergone a second fermentation in bottle, though there was no visible petillance it was certainly evident on the palate.
  
  Interestingly, mine was labelled 14.5% ABV

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