Still young at age 25! Deep dark color, fruity nose. Very ripe dark fruit, chocolate, espresso, vanilla. Powerful. Nice length. Will keep some more years.
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Winebar [end of yr Special] + 3 Shared Bottles from 12/27/19 (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): “100% Shiraz from the ‘20 Rows’ block, owned by the Borrett family & planted in 1962 on the Langhorne Creek flood plain of S. Australia. The ‘20 Rows’ vines are quite low yielding for the area @ ≈3-4 tons/acre. They grow on their own roots (the region is free of phylloxera) in soils of deep alluvial clay loam with an almost shimmering quality. The wine is crushed, fermented, matured, & bottled on our property. Fermentation takes place in our small open vats which are hand plunged.” Typically, “After fermentation is complete (10-20 days), pressing is done by hand using small manual basket presses. Aged for 18 mos in small (300 L) FR & AM oak barrels (≈30-40% new);”
N: Intensely focused with a RIPE melange of berries, SMOKE, & eucalyptus™, the smoke poss slightly atop? ™[A more experienced taster ID'd this, which I was having trouble placing.]
P: Med, poss MF, body; Rndish entry with NICE, almost swtish frt met by an astringent pucker which stays within hailing distance of the init frt as it SEAMLESSLY transitions into a very LONG, BALANCED, still very, VERY slightly puckerish finish with a bitter/swtness (60:40) to the dusty tannins. NEEDS through '23, I'm guessing, then at least getting CLOSE to its 30th? While not "my" stylistic preference, it nevertheless struck me as being well made. My EXC+, & may well be > down the line. 96 pts WA (6/23/01) & 92 Vinous (Tanzer, 7-8/'01).
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Looked very promising when poured into the glass. Nice hue, no browning. Great saturated color; youthful. Full throttle, over-ripeness, high alcohol, no balance, little interest. Even with a simple grilled burger this didn't work. i'm glad that I didn't pay retail for this wine...
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Magenta with a deeper hued core, no bricking Ripe plum, eucalyptus and cherry cough medicine on the nose...initial nose had me worried...after some air the nose was very clean with ripe plum, mixed berries and tea notes. Chocolate covered cherries and very Zin-like characteristics of rich fruit and spice. After time the chocolate became even more pronounced. My advice would be to drink now. While there is no bricking I did not detect nuances that would say wait a few years.
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4/22/2024 - shafer1994 Likes this wine: 93 Points
Still young at age 25! Deep dark color, fruity nose. Very ripe dark fruit, chocolate, espresso, vanilla. Powerful. Nice length. Will keep some more years.
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12/28/2019 - srh Likes this wine:
Winebar [end of yr Special] + 3 Shared Bottles from 12/27/19 (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): “100% Shiraz from the ‘20 Rows’ block, owned by the Borrett family & planted in 1962 on the Langhorne Creek flood plain of S. Australia. The ‘20 Rows’ vines are quite low yielding for the area @ ≈3-4 tons/acre. They grow on their own roots (the region is free of phylloxera) in soils of deep alluvial clay loam with an almost shimmering quality. The wine is crushed, fermented, matured, & bottled on our property. Fermentation takes place in our small open vats which are hand plunged.” Typically, “After fermentation is complete (10-20 days), pressing is done by hand using small manual basket presses. Aged for 18 mos in small (300 L) FR & AM oak barrels (≈30-40% new);”
N: Intensely focused with a RIPE melange of berries, SMOKE, & eucalyptus™, the smoke poss slightly atop? ™[A more experienced taster ID'd this, which I was having trouble placing.]
P: Med, poss MF, body; Rndish entry with NICE, almost swtish frt met by an astringent pucker which stays within hailing distance of the init frt as it SEAMLESSLY transitions into a very LONG, BALANCED, still very, VERY slightly puckerish finish with a bitter/swtness (60:40) to the dusty tannins. NEEDS through '23, I'm guessing, then at least getting CLOSE to its 30th? While not "my" stylistic preference, it nevertheless struck me as being well made. My EXC+, & may well be > down the line. 96 pts WA (6/23/01) & 92 Vinous (Tanzer, 7-8/'01).
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6/20/2019 - vagrantone Does not like this wine: 82 Points
Looked very promising when poured into the glass. Nice hue, no browning. Great saturated color; youthful.
Full throttle, over-ripeness, high alcohol, no balance, little interest.
Even with a simple grilled burger this didn't work. i'm glad that I didn't pay retail for this wine...
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6/1/2019 - unionst Likes this wine: 89 Points
Magenta with a deeper hued core, no bricking
Ripe plum, eucalyptus and cherry cough medicine on the nose...initial nose had me worried...after some air the nose was very clean with ripe plum, mixed berries and tea notes.
Chocolate covered cherries and very Zin-like characteristics of rich fruit and spice. After time the chocolate became even more pronounced.
My advice would be to drink now. While there is no bricking I did not detect nuances that would say wait a few years.
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6/29/2018 - buckeye76 wrote: 90 Points
This was good, yet a bit disappointing. Fruit is drying out and was a bit one dimensional. Medium length finish.
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