Some red and black fruit, indistinct but tart, mostly a tertiary wine at this stage. A bit sharp on the tongue, acidity? A bit meh relative to the previous bottle. PnP and drank over ~90mins with a friend. Enjoyable, maybe needed more of a decant to show better but maybe just showing the relatively low quality of the 07 vintage as this wasn't a great example of mature McLaren Shiraz.
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I was punished for my impatience as the first sip on opening seemed hot with alcohol and unbalanced with sourness, but the wine just needed time to breathe...it says on the back of the bottle to decant it so the mistake is all mine 😄 Fast forward 30mins and the wine is still big and potent but now seems really well balanced with ripeness, freshness, weight and structure. There's ripe raspberry with tart red currant fruit, and chocolate and eucalyptus following. The tannins seems soft at first but linger and build. For a McLaren Vale flagship what surprises me is the crunchy tartness. There's a lot of fruit bombs made in The Vale but this is16 years old and it's lipsmacking and fresh. I think you could drink a lot of this and not get tired of it, I've got the bottle to myself tonight to test that theory 😄
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3/31/2024 - wqseow wrote: 84 Points
Probably over the hill.
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1/7/2024 - peter.mancell@mfg.com.au Likes this wine: 95 Points
Last of a great breed!
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1/7/2024 - colinscellar wrote: 90 Points
Some red and black fruit, indistinct but tart, mostly a tertiary wine at this stage. A bit sharp on the tongue, acidity?
A bit meh relative to the previous bottle. PnP and drank over ~90mins with a friend. Enjoyable, maybe needed more of a decant to show better but maybe just showing the relatively low quality of the 07 vintage as this wasn't a great example of mature McLaren Shiraz.
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8/4/2023 - colinscellar Likes this wine: 93 Points
I was punished for my impatience as the first sip on opening seemed hot with alcohol and unbalanced with sourness, but the wine just needed time to breathe...it says on the back of the bottle to decant it so the mistake is all mine 😄
Fast forward 30mins and the wine is still big and potent but now seems really well balanced with ripeness, freshness, weight and structure. There's ripe raspberry with tart red currant fruit, and chocolate and eucalyptus following. The tannins seems soft at first but linger and build.
For a McLaren Vale flagship what surprises me is the crunchy tartness. There's a lot of fruit bombs made in The Vale but this is16 years old and it's lipsmacking and fresh. I think you could drink a lot of this and not get tired of it, I've got the bottle to myself tonight to test that theory 😄
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment