Viking Wines, Grand Shiraz, Barossa Valley

Gifted this bottle with the understanding (and advice) to drink. Had been stored too long as part of an investment. Deep garnet in colour. On the nose almost like a fortefeid. Palate-wise, still drinkable and far from unpleasant, but past its best. Prunes, stewed fruit, plum with leather and tobacco notes. I'd helave been interested to have a bottle of this come my way 8-10 years ago.

Nose shows dark fruit notes of prune, plum, and raisin, backed by heavy notes of sambuca, pencil lead, eucalyptus, and vanilla. Palate is distinctly Porty, with high alcohol and flavours of raisin and chocolate over mixed berry flavours (blackberry, raspberry, strawberry). The palate is juicy and light-bodied, with fully-resolved tannins and low acidity: it's a little too light-bodied to back up the heavy, Porty flavours.

Cracker. Great depth. But Halliday is right, needs friends to help finish the bottle. It is quite buxom.

Big Shiraz with a fruity aftertaste. Smooth palate, could even be cellared longer.

The real Jeff Erhardt / Mahaffy offline (Rôtisserie Jules, London) : I was looking forward to trying this, a cult Shiraz made from old vines under the supervision of Rolf Binder. This was decanted for 4 hours. Dark purple-black. Quite a lot of alcohol on the nose masked for me what other people were suspecting - that it was corked - but alas, it was... :-( Not rated.

Corked. Also lots of VA and alcohol