Wine
Butterfly Ridge is part of a budget range from Angove's that provides good value in large volumes. The Shiraz Cabernet has soft, approachable fruit with soft tannins but does provide nice plum fruit flavours.
Top Ten Bargain Range, The Australian Wine Annual, Jeremy Oliver.
The Longrow Range from Angove was launched in 2003 as a result of vineyard improvements and has been consistently getting excellent reviews from wine scribes for quality and value.
This wine has received some remarkable plaudits from the wine world in the last few years with its sales growing exponentially to become one of our most popular. It's full of bright red berry fruit with just enough residual sweetness to give it a nice lift. 90 Points The Advertiser Top 100 2009.
The current Cabernet Merlot shows good intensity reflective of the dry vintage and should drink well early and for the next five years.
Annie's Lane Rose is a vibrant pink colour, the aroma is of freshly picked Mt Compass Strawberries, the palate shows some fruit sweetness and those luscious strawberries.
Alex McKenzie has fashioned a Shiraz of medium to full bodied richness, flavours of plum and mocha that is immediately approachable in it's youth or will cellar for five plus years.
This is the least expensive of Stephen George's Pinot's but always punches well above its weight. The 2008 is an absolute gem; think sour cherry and plums with some savoury forest-floor character but what will really blow you away is the impeccable balance and tremendous length of this wine.
L'Isolano means 'The Islander' and is a reference to the island of Sicily where this wine comes from. Nero d'Avola is a native variety there that produces medium-bodied wines with juicy berry character, pronounced tannin and good acidity which basically means they're very food friendly wines.
The stated BABO philosophy of purity and elegance is neatly reflected in this wine. The fruit forward cherry flavours show the winemaker's background, the chewy tannins the grape variety and the lower alcohol and higher acidity the region. A mix of old and new world that has produced an extremely drinkable wine.
Ballast Stone are clearly making a style statement here, and it says, 'crowd pleaser.' It has lashings of sarsaparilla and a recent review by Wine State gave the wine 4.5 stars out of 5.