In the decanter an hour prior to drinking. Super tasty, ripe dark red and black plums, chocolate, well rounded and just super tasty and smashable. Excellent fun. Score reflects enjoyment factor over any technical aspect.
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Unique and truly delightful. New nuances continue to show themselves. Evolving beautifully --see my 5/22 comments. Now even More Character--the earth and blue fruit, with smoke cassis, spices make this is a Very interesting and enticing wine. Soooo much going on, soooo complex. Our GCC group is mostly California cab dinkers, but every time I bring this, it gets great raves. Last time it was fantastic with short ribs, and this time a great match with beef stroganoff. Still very fruity, no jam, no hint of getting near over the hill. I have 4 more. Patience is difficult.
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GCC May 2022. Drinking very well now. Loved it two years ago, whe it has a more tannic character, and we liked the nice bite. This time certainly more mature---same wonderful clear dark fruit--with good acidity and balance. blackberry/blueberry muanced with spices and and a very intersting earthiness. Very nice level of complexity front to back, and quite a good finish. 2 1/2 hour decant--should have done more--at 3 1/2 hours the finish was more evident. Seeing some posts here inspires me to drink my other four bottles at two year intervals. I love this wine but am more a Napa cab drinker than an Aussie Shiraz guy, so I am hoping that you are right re the "still a baby--wait 10 years." Anyway it is an exciting prospect. To me and our group, this wine is drinking way way over its price point.
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2. Flasche, halbes Jahr später schmeckt er mir noch besser. Vielleicht ist es auch einfach nur die Weihnachtsstimmung und die Gesellschaft. voll, rund, dunkel, lang, einfach ausgezeichnet.
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A typical Claire Valley Shiraz who is still a baby, it will need another 15 years plus to show its true colours. Having said this, it is very enjoyable now with primary fruits still being dominant but not jammy. From a great vintage, it has the acidity, structure and oak to go the distance. As is, concentrated fruit with power but there is a suppleness to it all. It is a bit like driving a car with air suspension. 10 + years.....
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Deep inky violet, this is has the purity Aussie Shiraz can deliver so well. Powerful blackberry and blueberry with just a touch of sweetness and a real lick of peppery savouriness. Spicy, statuesque, this is the iron fist in the velvet glove. Beautiful long finish. Belongs with a nice piece of beef.
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375ml bottle. Small decant prior to drinking. I’ve really enjoyed this, well rounded and integrated and just damn easy to drink, it will be a real crowd pleaser.
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Two very consistent bottles here. No decanting and we didn't feel it need it. Great value for money, modern textbook Aussie Shiraz, spice, dark fruits, light mocha but also in good balance for the style and with good ripe and rich feel. 89-90
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Quality for value is through the roof here and this is a very solid wine for sure and not heavily marked on restaurant lists. Its as expected of course , ripe and mascular, rich wine with good helping of oak and a good 14% to go with it. Not lactic though and the elements work well and has a good balance albeit big wine. In no way heavy. Very happy with it and worked well with meat as one can imagine. 90-91
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The quality is pretty evident here, it is a cracking wine well worth the price. Excellent mouthfeel and great subtley to it. A long finish, powerful but very well balanced.
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Surpassed many of my preconceptions. Drinking alongside a Rotie, it shows it's new-world blood, but in a restrained, elegant manner. 6y have done this well.
N: Grilled meat, warming wood spice and earthy cedar, perfumed, elegant blue and black fruit. Subtle creamy toasted oak.
P: Fresh acidity give lift to full body, leathery texture, grainy m- tannin. Blackcurrant and rasp reduction. Earthy cellar floor.
F: Toasty oak, worn leather, creamy baking spice. Balance! Bit short, stopping more points. Solid.
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Close to 90 but not quite and 89s maybe harsh but it's just too generic (amongst a huge lineup of great Aussie shiraz that is). Well made but forgettable. Plush middle. Finish shouldn' be so sharp. Not feeling any compelling reason for a second glass.
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Very dark colour. Good fruit on the slightly vegetal nose but a touch of rotting vegetation cleared quickly. Lovely, creamy fruit with fragrant dark berries and spice. Great depth and good acidity - very well balanced and long. I'm sure this has at least a decade of development ahead. 93+ Tasted at Grand Union Wine Society with Scott Edge of Negociants UK.
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Concentrated ruby red color with a purple hue. Very bold and concentrated nose with opulent aromas of sweet blackberries, perfumed floral tones, some ripe bilberries, a little bit of savory wood spice and a hint of toasty mocha oak. The wine is pretty dense and extracted on the palate with powerful and somewhat sweet-toned flavors of sweet plummy fruit, some peppery spice, a little bit of extracted woody bitterness, light chocolatey notes of oak, a hint of blackberry marmalade and toasty nuances of tar and smoke. The wine is medium in acidity, so the structure relies more on the quite ample tannins that bring some welcome sense of firmness to the wine. The persistent finish is quite dry, grippy and somewhat bitter with more savory than sweet flavors of ripe dark berries, crushed peppercorns, some savory wood spice, a little bit of astringent chokeberry character, light oaky hints of mocha and dark chocolate and a touch of tar.
A quite big and concentrated Shiraz that relies more on the weight and concentration of the ripe fruit than on freshness and elegance. The oak presence is quite noticeable, but still the emphasis is more on the fruit than on the wood, so I guess you could say the oak use is pretty judicious here. Overall the wine feels bigger, more concentrated and weightier than The Lodge Hill Shiraz by Jim Barry, but ultimately not really more impressive. There's more stuffing here, making this wine feel a bit more complex, but The Lodge Hill feels a bit fresher and more elegant, so the end result is pretty much plus-minus zero. Not really my type of wine, but nothing bad either. Might get better with age if the wine loses some of its baby fat and the most obvious oak characteristics.
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12/10/2023 - red.red.vino wrote: 94 Points
In the decanter an hour prior to drinking. Super tasty, ripe dark red and black plums, chocolate, well rounded and just super tasty and smashable. Excellent fun. Score reflects enjoyment factor over any technical aspect.
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4/14/2023 - NapaTom Likes this wine: 94 Points
Unique and truly delightful. New nuances continue to show themselves. Evolving beautifully --see my 5/22 comments. Now even More Character--the earth and blue fruit, with smoke cassis, spices make this is a Very interesting and enticing wine. Soooo much going on, soooo complex. Our GCC group is mostly California cab dinkers, but every time I bring this, it gets great raves. Last time it was fantastic with short ribs, and this time a great match with beef stroganoff. Still very fruity, no jam, no hint of getting near over the hill. I have 4 more. Patience is difficult.
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5/19/2022 - NapaTom Likes this wine: 93 Points
GCC May 2022. Drinking very well now. Loved it two years ago, whe it has a more tannic character, and we liked the nice bite. This time certainly more mature---same wonderful clear dark fruit--with good acidity and balance. blackberry/blueberry muanced with spices and and a very intersting earthiness. Very nice level of complexity front to back, and quite a good finish.
2 1/2 hour decant--should have done more--at 3 1/2 hours the finish was more evident. Seeing some posts here inspires me to drink my other four bottles at two year intervals. I love this wine but am more a Napa cab drinker than an Aussie Shiraz guy, so I am hoping that you are right re the "still a baby--wait 10 years." Anyway it is an exciting prospect. To me and our group, this wine is drinking way way over its price point.
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12/23/2021 - matthbo Likes this wine: 93 Points
2. Flasche, halbes Jahr später schmeckt er mir noch besser. Vielleicht ist es auch einfach nur die Weihnachtsstimmung und die Gesellschaft. voll, rund, dunkel, lang, einfach ausgezeichnet.
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5/13/2021 - matthbo Likes this wine: 90 Points
Sehr guter Wein, fruchtig,rund,harmonisch und gehaltvoll mit der typischen erdigen Rustikalität des Shiraz. Easy drinking
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1/15/2021 - tanduybui Likes this wine: 92 Points
A typical Claire Valley Shiraz who is still a baby, it will need another 15 years plus to show its true colours. Having said this, it is very enjoyable now with primary fruits still being dominant but not jammy. From a great vintage, it has the acidity, structure and oak to go the distance. As is, concentrated fruit with power but there is a suppleness to it all. It is a bit like driving a car with air suspension. 10 + years.....
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3/31/2019 - depechemoroder Likes this wine: 92 Points
Deep inky violet, this is has the purity Aussie Shiraz can deliver so well. Powerful blackberry and blueberry with just a touch of sweetness and a real lick of peppery savouriness. Spicy, statuesque, this is the iron fist in the velvet glove. Beautiful long finish. Belongs with a nice piece of beef.
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3/3/2019 - red.red.vino wrote: 93 Points
375ml bottle. Small decant prior to drinking. I’ve really enjoyed this, well rounded and integrated and just damn easy to drink, it will be a real crowd pleaser.
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11/27/2018 - Papies wrote: 89 Points
Two very consistent bottles here. No decanting and we didn't feel it need it.
Great value for money, modern textbook Aussie Shiraz, spice, dark fruits, light mocha but also in good balance for the style and with good ripe and rich feel. 89-90
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10/22/2018 - Papies wrote: 90 Points
Quality for value is through the roof here and this is a very solid wine for sure and not heavily marked on restaurant lists.
Its as expected of course , ripe and mascular, rich wine with good helping of oak and a good 14% to go with it. Not lactic though and the elements work well and has a good balance albeit big wine. In no way heavy. Very happy with it and worked well with meat as one can imagine. 90-91
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9/2/2018 - DanCulpitt Likes this wine: 92 Points
The quality is pretty evident here, it is a cracking wine well worth the price. Excellent mouthfeel and great subtley to it. A long finish, powerful but very well balanced.
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5/24/2018 - WilliamMP Likes this wine: 92 Points
Surpassed many of my preconceptions. Drinking alongside a Rotie, it shows it's new-world blood, but in a restrained, elegant manner. 6y have done this well.
N: Grilled meat, warming wood spice and earthy cedar, perfumed, elegant blue and black fruit. Subtle creamy toasted oak.
P: Fresh acidity give lift to full body, leathery texture, grainy m- tannin. Blackcurrant and rasp reduction. Earthy cellar floor.
F: Toasty oak, worn leather, creamy baking spice. Balance! Bit short, stopping more points. Solid.
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1/19/2018 - SlimShaney wrote: 89 Points
Close to 90 but not quite and 89s maybe harsh but it's just too generic (amongst a huge lineup of great Aussie shiraz that is). Well made but forgettable. Plush middle. Finish shouldn' be so sharp. Not feeling any compelling reason for a second glass.
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10/13/2017 - johnrm Likes this wine: 93 Points
Very dark colour. Good fruit on the slightly vegetal nose but a touch of rotting vegetation cleared quickly. Lovely, creamy fruit with fragrant dark berries and spice. Great depth and good acidity - very well balanced and long. I'm sure this has at least a decade of development ahead. 93+
Tasted at Grand Union Wine Society with Scott Edge of Negociants UK.
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4/23/2016 - greidy Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very dark and extracted, lots of black fruits, spices and pepper. Typical/good example of Clare Valley Shiraz.
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10/7/2015 - forceberry wrote: 90 Points
Concentrated ruby red color with a purple hue. Very bold and concentrated nose with opulent aromas of sweet blackberries, perfumed floral tones, some ripe bilberries, a little bit of savory wood spice and a hint of toasty mocha oak. The wine is pretty dense and extracted on the palate with powerful and somewhat sweet-toned flavors of sweet plummy fruit, some peppery spice, a little bit of extracted woody bitterness, light chocolatey notes of oak, a hint of blackberry marmalade and toasty nuances of tar and smoke. The wine is medium in acidity, so the structure relies more on the quite ample tannins that bring some welcome sense of firmness to the wine. The persistent finish is quite dry, grippy and somewhat bitter with more savory than sweet flavors of ripe dark berries, crushed peppercorns, some savory wood spice, a little bit of astringent chokeberry character, light oaky hints of mocha and dark chocolate and a touch of tar.
A quite big and concentrated Shiraz that relies more on the weight and concentration of the ripe fruit than on freshness and elegance. The oak presence is quite noticeable, but still the emphasis is more on the fruit than on the wood, so I guess you could say the oak use is pretty judicious here. Overall the wine feels bigger, more concentrated and weightier than The Lodge Hill Shiraz by Jim Barry, but ultimately not really more impressive. There's more stuffing here, making this wine feel a bit more complex, but The Lodge Hill feels a bit fresher and more elegant, so the end result is pretty much plus-minus zero. Not really my type of wine, but nothing bad either. Might get better with age if the wine loses some of its baby fat and the most obvious oak characteristics.
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