Community Tasting Note
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alohashirt Likes this wine: 94 points
May 2, 2022 - This has one of the biggest, longest noses I have ever smelled. Super intense, red fruit, hot nose, spice, vanilla. On the palate, this is a fruit explosion - raspberry, blackberry, stewed plums, vanilla, spice, and a creaminess. Medium body, just enough tannins, and just enough acidity- this is all about the fruit. Definitely heat there from the 16% ABV. I wonder if this is the kind of wine that Johnny Depp drinks every day?
The cool thing about (great) wine is that there are levels to it. The Juan Gil Monastrell I was drinking before this cost $12 a bottle and it's a delicious serious wine. Mollydooker's Boxer Shiraz, at $31 is a consistently excellent, high octane, fruit-forward shiraz with much more obvious vanillin than this wine. Velvet glove is the same varietal, same vineyards, same winemaker, more complexity, and 5x the price. Is it 5x as good? probably not but it's better than most $200 wine that I have tasted. It's certainly good value for $150. I've finished half the bottle and I am already ordering two more!
I do wonder about aging with this wine. My impression is that wine-lovers want to believe that wine gets better with time, regardless of whether this is true. I have drunk at least 300 bottles of Mollydooker wine - some 16 years old, but most 2 to 4 years old. My subjective impression is that it's best drunk young - yet some of my best ever wines were made by Sarah & Sparky Marquis in 2000.
Second night: I figured that I would try this against Mollydooker's entry-level Shiraz, the boxer, which costs 1/5 of Velvet Glove. I love both wines. The boxer was tighter, more vanillin, more obvious oak, less overpowering fruit - and to be clear, Velvet Gloves isn't a fruit bomb, isn't flaccid, doesn't taste confected. The difference I noticed wasn't about a specific quality factor. Instead, it was something that I first heard articulated by Peter Koff, of the wineking youtube channel. When I look across my desk at a half glass of Penfolds Bin 600, a half-glass of Mollydooker's Boxer, and an empty glass of Velvet glove, I know that I can only do one thing... pour the remaining 2/3 of a glass of Velvet Glove and finish it. Even if it means throwing out some other excellent wine. Velvet Glove is the bottle that I want to finish, regardless. Its very special to me.1 person found this helpful 1,941 views
3 Comments
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gteran76 commented:
5/3/22, 3:16 PM - I liked your note! Johnny drinks this for breakfast and dinner for sure! I had a 2006 recently that was pretty impressive, I do have in my cellar 2014, 2016 and 2018... not sure if I have the courage of opening the 2018 but for sure will drink the '14 very soon...
What's your impressions of the Carnival of Love? I do have '18s and I may find "the strength to crack that one open later this year... -
alohashirt commented:
5/3/22, 10:18 PM - So for me it's all about the strength to not open wine. I love Carnival of Love. I think that this was only the fourth Velvet Glove I tasted and it made a much better impression than the prior ones.
So night 2 I tasted this against a 2018 Boxer. They were very different - but not in the way I expected. I love the Boxer. I love Velvet Glove. They are both Shiraz from the same vineyard in McLaren Vale, same winemaker, better fruit for Velvet Glove.
The Boxer tasted more closed, more vanilla, with obvious oak effect, high alcohol, long finish, very nice. Velvet glove was more "open" tasting - and I wanted to guzzle it - to chug it like it was sparkling water. It was just so , so nice. Not at all what I anticipated. -
gteran76 commented:
5/4/22, 8:50 AM - I have never had the Boxer, but I had the Blue Eye Boy the other day (2019) and did not like at all.