Shiraz Shoot-out
Seattle, WA
Tasted May 9, 2005 by Eric with 1,284 views
Introduction
In February I sat next to Mike Opdahl of Joshua Tree Imports at a tasting in LA, and we had a lot of similar impressions of the wines. (Mike is a managing partner of Joshua Tree Imports who are bringing in an interesting lineup of Australian wines.) A month or so later, Mike noticed a few of my tasting notes on Aussie wines and offered to send me a case of sample to get my impressions, and I was happy to take him up on the offer. It took me a little while, but I finally got around to opening them. Rather than slowly opening these one at a time, I thought it would be more useful to invite a few folks over and open them all at once in a blind format. So tonight 7 of us assembled to work through this lineup.
I asked people to score the wines on a 100-point scale, but the scores for nearly all of the wines were homogeneous (averaging to 86 points). What was more clear was the wine that people picked in each flight as their favorite. The Journeys End wines were probably the surprise of the tasting, taking a lot of votes for the favorite wines and showing well across their lineup.
Flight 1 (4 notes)
In the opening flight the Warrenmang and TwoFold were preferred, taking 5 of 7 favorite votes between them and the edge to the Warrenmang.
Red
2002 Journeys End Vineyards Shiraz Ascent McLaren Vale
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
The fairly reticent nose shows spice, plum, raspberry and some white pepper. The palate is pleasant, straightforward, fairly monolithic, somewhat bitter with air. Some heat on the finish.
Red
2002 Warrenmang Shiraz Black Puma
Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Pyrenees
This was one of my favorite wines of the tasting. The nose is huge and soaring with spearmint, eucalyptus, pepper and tar. The palate is vibrant, loaded with black and red fruits, tight but promising, showing terrific structure. The finish is huge with lingering flavors of eucalypt.
Red
2002 TwoFold Shiraz Heathcote
Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Heathcote
The nose shows grape jelly with light notes of mint. With air this gets more ripe and shows tar, soy and roasted plum, changing constantly. The palate however is fairly tight and astringent, a little sour.
Red
2003 Mad Dog Shiraz
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
Hmm, this has an odd nose, a bit green, stemmy and herbal at first. However, as odd as the nose was, the palate was fantastic. Bright and loaded with red fruit, absolutely mouthfilling, getting better and better with air. At first I scored this 82, but as it breathed it moved up considerably.
Flight 2 (4 notes)
The second flight was a bit saddled with two deeply flawed wines. Most tasters chose the Journeys End Beginning as their favorite.
Red
2002 Pheasant Farm Shiraz Home Block Barossa Valley
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
A little reticent at first, then tar, pepper spice, roasted meat, and a bit of heat. The palate is very nice, a big mouthful, loaded with black fruit, spicy, vibrant yet managing to be smooth. The finish is pretty nice, showing just a hint of bitterness.
Red
2001 Pheasant Farm Shiraz Home Block Barossa Valley
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
As good as the 2002 was, this was utterly awful. Hyper-ripe and candied with dill pickle and sweet relish. The palate is hot, bitter and harsh, showing wood tannins and cloying sweetness, a real retcher. Not rated.
Red
2003 Journeys End Vineyards Shiraz Beginning McLaren Vale
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
Oak, vanilla, and blueberry stand out, showing lots of unintegrated wood. However, the palate is fantastic with bright, red fruit and excellent structure. This needs a little time to come together, but it is a very nice bottle.
Red
2002 Lost Wolf Shiraz
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
This was horrendously flawed with massive volatile acidity. Absolutely undrinkable. DNPIM.
Flight 3 (4 notes)
The Journeys End again ended up on top taking a majority of votes with the rest going to the Dutschke St. Jakobi. These two favored wines each averaged 89+ points from the tasters whereas every other wine to this point was 86+.
Red
2002 Journeys End Vineyards Shiraz Arrival McLaren Vale
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
This was my WOTN during the regular tasting. A hint of mint with violet and dark chocolate, laser-focused on the nose. The palate provides a simply huge mouthful of wine, black, brooding, monstrous, the sort of Shiraz that I love, a serious kick in the teeth!
Red
2002 Dutschke Shiraz Oscar Semmler
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
I struggled with this one. The nose shows spice cake and mint, very high-pitched. The palate is spicy showing red fruit, but with air this became increasingly sweet to the point of cloying.
Red
2002 Marius Wines Shiraz Single Vineyard McLaren Vale
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
This was different with a sharp nose of balsamic vinegar, barnyard, hay, BBQ sauce, slightly overripe yet wild. The palate is ripe but nicely balance by spicy white pepper. The finish is juicy and fresh, intriguing. As odd as the nose was (and it was odd), this was enjoyable.
Red
2002 Dutschke Shiraz Single Vineyard St. Jakobi Vineyard
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
Ahh, a nice nose of mint an eucalypt; I'm a sucker for this aromatic profile. I found this to be very tight and structured, needing a lot of time and not entirely pleasant for current consumption.
Flight 4 (4 notes)
I was inspired to add on a flight from my cellar to see how it might stand up, hence the last flight of four. This flight was bagged, popped and poured, single blind to me and double-blind to everyone else. People were getting a bit tired and worked on the palate, but everyone wanted to linger over these. For me the MP 9 was the wine of the tasting, narrowly edging out the Journeys End Arrival.
Red
2002 Marquis Philips Shiraz Integrity
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
Hmm, not such a great drink on pop and pour. Rod suggested that it is an awful lot more enjoyable with a fatty steak. The nose is hot showing loads of tar. The palate is big and juicy, a blueberry milkshake showing searing structure. We'll see how the remainder does over the next day or two, but for now it is a 90 pointer.
Red
2002 Clarendon Hills Grenache Clarendon
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Clarendon
In a lineup of Shiraz, this was a ringer. The nose shows ripe plums, white pepper, tar and raspberry. Fantastic aromatics! The palate is absolutely freaking awesome with tar, spice and huge structure yet so much lighter than the Shiraz. The mouthwatering finish is awesome. My scoring here is perhaps conservative, but that's what I wrote down.
Red
2002 Marquis Philips Shiraz
Australia, South Eastern
This was my least favorite of the flight by far. A very ripe, ripe nose is accented by some violet. The palate while approachable is a bit astringent and hollow compared to the other wines.
Red
2002 Marquis Philips Shiraz 9
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
Wow, what a nose! Tar, roasted meat, soy and BBQ sauce. The palate is utterly fantastic, vibrant, powerful, very well balance, not showing any of the heat of the other MP 2002's.
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