First Creek, Winemaker's Reserve Shiraz, Hunter Valley

Going threw the cellar for a nice red for my Birthday Dinner tonight , i can across this classic so it would nice to give readers a update how its going from the great 2008 year. Deep Black Core still in colour with a ruby rim at March 2020. excellent for age of 12yrs stelvin closure . Yeah yummy plummy prune and iodine shiraz fruit leaps out of the glass with lovely oak integration as u would except. Maturing as …

NobleRottersSydney - shiraz all prices (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney) : {screwcap, 14%, ~A$80} (Greg) A label usually sourced from the Hunter; the appalling 2008 vintage forced the team to look further afield in NSW. That said, I didn’t find this to be overtly cool-climate in character. The aromas are packed with black-tinged aromas, the flavours follow with liquorice and blackberries. A spicy savouriness defines the palate, with medium powdery tannins, medium acidity, and a medium weight with good presence …

NobleRottersSydney - blind Shiraz (Verde, East Sydney) : {screwcap, 14%} (Greg) Youthful nose of dark mulberries along with a perfumed note that might be typical of cool-climate Canberra shiraz. (What were the options questions? – can’t remember…) Never-the-less, transparent and pure. The palate is soft, seductive and velvety, with sweet red fruits, not cloying, and fine dusty tannins. Gentle, even palate, medium-bodied wine, needs more time to blossom.

As good as 2007

2012 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Exhibitor's Tasting (Olympic Park, Homebush) : {screwcap, 14.5%} Big, youthful, sweet jammy nose of liqueured blackberries. Just the way Parker and the Americans used to like them. But do they still? The palate is sweet; really fruit-sweet with blueberries and plums and spicy oak, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some unfermented sugar here, so candied and cordial-like is the palate texture. Gentle tannins and soft acid are very much in the …