Lots of toasty, charred oak on the nose with underlying stewed red and blue fruits. On the palate it shows good balance throughoutwith a touch of spice and dense dark fruits. There was a touch of heat out of the finish, which was the only major flaw in a wine that I found also shut down a bit with time in my glass. Over all impression: This is a good wine, but not really exciting in my opinion.

While I'll say that I haven't heard the best of things about this wine, it isn't all bad. The nose shows big lush blackberry and raspberry fruits with some underlying white pepper. These notes carry over into the taste, but then here's where I struggled with this wine. The finished suddenly takes a huge about face and takes on a very unpleasant dark chocolate and grape cough syrup combination that completely turned me off. Overall impression: No way, no how would I ever buy this stuff. Not my thing.

Delicate black and red fruit on the nose with some spicy cinnamon running throughout. Taste was pretty tannic and that spice jumps right out at you, along with fresh blueberries and black pepper. Overall impression: YOUNG, but has really great potential to be a treat if everything comes together.

Another big toasty oak bomb of a nose. Some sweet spices and blackberries peaked through, but it was hard to find. Palate showed a very tannic edge to it, with dense blackberry and balck licorice flavors. Overall Impression: Good, but I just have too much trouble getting past that nose. Why do some producers feel the need to drown out the fruit with all that scorched oak? I'll pass.

Tobacco and spice mixed with sweet red and blue fruits. Another sharp tannic wine, which is surprising considering the treatment that most of the wines we tasted in this flight were given, I got red berries and sweet strawberry that gave way to an alcohol laden finish. Overall impression: Average at best. While the nose wasn't bad, this seemed pretty simple and primary to me.

I brought two bottles to the tasting, and as an exercise in aeration, one was popped and sat in the bottle over 24 hours and the other was popped when I arrived at the venue. I have had this wine enough to know immediately which was which in the tasting as the second in the line up showed so much more depth of flavor and softer edges. But, as I have said previously, I would be happy drinking this in either scenario, as I also love the freshness of the fruits at the pop and pour.

Looking at my notes on this wine, I should have known it was an Aussie right off the bat. Nose shows very dense and over extracted blue and blackberries, and sweet oak. This carries over into the palate with some tar and tobacco notes out of the finish. If ever there was a BIG Shiraz, this is it. Not quite as over the top as the Dead Arm, but still very dense and rich. Overall impressions: Not my thing, so it's hard to say, but I think if you like this style this could be a wine that you would enjoy.

A ringer! And slipped in right under our noses....or palates, as it were. I got dense, meaty stewed fruits on the nose, but to my surprise, the flavors were more medium bodied showing fresh red berries into a toasty oak filled finish. Now that I look back at my notes, I think that tasting this with all of these big syrahs kind of masked the subtle differences that made this wine distinctly merlot. Overall impression: I like more old world styled merlot, but I think this is something I could get behind. It is still young and a bit disjointed, but with some time this could be really tasty.

Nose shows dense black licorice, tobacco, clove, and lush red and blue berries. On the palate I am blown away by the balance of this wine, it has such great structure and finesse, IMO. Flavors of spice, tar, balck fruits, white pepper, and what I can only describe as blood sort of ruminate across the palate. Overall impression: My wine of the tasting. While big and bold, I never felt like I was being overpowered by any one aspect of the wine. Even with 24 hours of air, this wine still needs time to breath/age. Very good, but give this some time to rest in the cellar.

Smoked meat, bacon fat and funk dominate the nose, with some underlying black fruits. Taste is dense and almost creamy with black licorice and overripe fruit flavors that seemed bordering on Amarone-like or like Campfiorin. The finish lasted a good while, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Overall Impressions: There is just no grace or elegance to this wine. It just seemed sloppy and unsure of itself. I can handle a good deal of funk and smoked meat in my wines, but I have to agree with fingers in that this was like drinking beef jerky, although he seemed to think it was a good thing. Just too much. Pass.