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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Feb 1st 2008
Price: $18.99
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Tasting Notes:
This wine was a winner. I knew the second I took a whiff of the nose that I was going to be very happy drinking this. The nose was very intense with tons of red fruit, minerals, and smoke. When you tasted it, you were surprised at how light it seemed to be. I'm sure you've heard of pinot as syrah from California. Well, this is syrah as pinot! The texture is silky smooth with an insane amount of bright red fruit that is joined mid way through with a black pepper and bacon component that just drove me wild. The finish is quite good with licorice and mint making an appearance. The more the wine breathed the more the strawberry and raspberry flavors came out. That combination with the great acidity made me want to keep drinking and drinking.
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Vintage: 2002
Purchased: Jan 22nd 2008
Price: $13.67
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Tasting Notes:
This is an interesting wine. You'd expect this to be your average big fuity cab. You'd be wrong. This wine is earthy and funky. The color is dark and inky, but the nose is filled with forest floor and mushroom aromas. On the palate, there is some fruit, mostly black, but the earthy taste again dominates. The finish is quite long with nice chewy tannins. It could perhaps have used a touch more acid. But this wine has personality out the wazoo, something you don't often find at this price point.
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Jan 5th 2008
Price: $10.00
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Tasting Notes:
This is a very interesting shiraz. While most (and especially Australian ones) are dense inky purple, this was fairly light by comparison. It still was an inky purple, but was almost translucent. The nose was very expressive. Mostly black fruits with a touch of cedar. You might think that with the low alcohol (12.5%) and the lighter color, that the wine would be under ripe. You would be wrong. It was explosive with fruit flavors. The finish is strong with the taste of cedar, and just a hint of black pepper.
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Apr 13th 2008
Price: $12.00
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Tasting Notes:
Kathrine really wanted to pick this up, but I wasn't sure. I tend not to like Australian wines at the lower price points as they seem too fruity and sweet to me. I was worried that this wine would even go further in that regard than usual.
It has the typical inky black/purple color, with a nice frothy bead to it. The nose is super fruit forward with blackberries and blueberries. I didn't notice any non fruit aromas. In the mouth it's creamy with the same fruit flavors dominating. There is just a touch of tannin that comes through the bubbles. It actually was quite pleasant at first. But the more you drink, the more it tastes like a fruit candy. It just began to wear me out. This might be an ok wine for an aperitif for a group of people, but don't expect a small group to finish a bottle.
Comments(1)
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Vintage: 2001
Purchased: Jan 14th 2007
Price: $9.99
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Tasting Notes:
This one has been sitting in our basement for some time. I had orignally bought three of them and two were drunk over the past year. The last one worried me that there might not be much life left in this, so when I needed a red wine to go with a grilled t-bone, I pulled this out.
The color of the wine doesn't give away its age at all. It's still a very deep inky purple, almost black. The aroma is fruity with a touch of leather and spice. The first impression on the pallet is still fruit. It's not a fruit bomb and it's less fruity than much of what comes from Australia, but it is still very jammy. There is quite an intense acid backbone however that cuts through the blackberry jam flavors. There is an intense peppery spiciness to the finish, and very soft tannins. I actually think the wine could probably even age a bit more, though it would become unpleasant with much less fruit. About the only thing to give away the age of this wine is the sediment. There sure is a lot of it.
Also Tasted On:
Feb 21st 2007Comments(0)
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Vintage: 2001
Purchased: Jan 14th 2007
Price: $9.99
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Tasting Notes:
This was the wine for the second and third course of our Valentine's dinner. The second course was a Moroccan spiced roasted rack of lamb on top of a bed of couscous. The third course was a cheese course featuring aged cheddar, goat's milk gouda, and idiazabal. I needed a big wine that could stand up to the heavily spiced lamb and the three sharp cheeses.
When I first saw this wine at Trader Joes I was very curious. I knew Penfolds made quite a few high quality wines, and this one was from back in 2001. And it was only 9.99? I bought a bottle just for curiosities sake and put it into the basement. I decided to research it a little and found out that there was a mistake at the Penfolds warehouse that led to them uncovering a batch of wine that should have been 2001 Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz. The problem is that the 2002 and 2003 wines have already been released and releasing this under its proper name would hurt sales. So they slapped a different label on it, and you can get it for a big discount.
This wine is not as fruity as you might expect. In fact it's much more elegant and refined than I've ever had from an Australian Shiraz. The nose is a mixture of mild berry, leather, anise, and spice; nothing over powering. It tastes very balanced with blackberries and light oak. The finish is all black pepper and spices. It had more acidity then I was expecting, but this was a good thing. I would be curious to try this back to back with the younger vintage Shiraz and compare them. One thing to remember is that this wine has a fair amount of sediment. Be careful when you pour, or decant it first.
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Jan 9th 2008Comments(0)
