Cleanskins
This is a very pleasant and easy drinking Barossa Shiraz. It is medium to full bodied and has an up-front fruit-driven style. There are flavours of blackberry, cherry, mulberry, mint chocolate and it finishes with good acid and tannin structure and some savoury notes coming from American and French oak. The 2006 vintage of the same wine will cost you $300 per dozen from the winery.
This is for lovers of full-throttle Barossa Shiraz. It's big, full, rich and round with typical blackberry flavour along with milk chocolate and mocha. It is smooth from start to finish with supple tannins and a dry savoury finish. This is a quality wine from a notable Barossa winemaker. The 2006 vintage of the same wine will cost you $312 per dozen from the winery.
This is a great value quaffer full of sweet forest-berry fruit and dark chocolate. It has good mouth filling body for such an inexpensive wine and admirable length. It's technically a non-vintage wine because it's a blend of vintages with the bulk of the fruit coming from the Adelaide Plains 2009 vintage.
A vibrant purple colour hints to a youthful wine that has aromas of ripe red berries and violets. It is medium bodied with mouth filling flavour and grainy tannins that give it a dry, savoury finish with good length.
This is a lovely aged Coonawarra Shiraz from a highly regarded producer (you'll see who when you pull the cork out). The nose is initially a little closed but opens up with some savoury meaty notes and a hint of blackberry. It is still very fresh and vibrant on the palate with stewed fruit flavours and supple tannins that have mellowed nicely with a bit of age. Drink over the next 2 to 3 years.
This is a great-value quaffer with plenty of bright red fruit as well as some darker plum flavours. Initially it has some juicy fruit-sweetness but then finishes quite dry and has good balance and oak integration. It's a well made wine that is smooth and easy to drink with plenty of bang for buck.
The flavour is rich, warm and powerful with black fruit, raisins, dark chocolate and liqueur coffee flavours with dusty, cedar oak-derived characters and gripping tannins.
We decided to call this 'Dry Red' because Petit Verdot tends to scare people a bit. But don't be frightened, this is a brilliant wine for the price and is my favourite cleanskin at the moment. It's medium bodied with loads of ripe forest berries, savoury spice and a hint of dark chocolate. This wine was specially made by Geoff Hardy to raise money for the victims of the 2009 Victorian bushfires. Fortunately there was a bit of unlabelled stock left over that we snapped up.
Grenache often gets overlooked in favour of Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon but it is a fantastic drink that is very under-rated. This is a wine that really starts to shine when given some time to open up. It is medium bodied but is full and round on the palate with raspberry and cherry fruit complemented by some savoury tobacco-leaf and leather character. This wine sells for around $30 when labelled.
This wine has a big, intense aroma of mulberry and black pepper characters backed by a toasty oak influence. It is certified organic Shiraz made from 100% Mclaren Vale fruit by Duane Coates.