I went to a Shiraz tasting at Reading University on 21 October 2009.

In all, there were 14 bottles from my cellar – all collected on my 2003 trip to Australia - see previous article. 18 people turned up.

The SCR wine stewart and I opened the bottles at 4pm and we graded the wines according to the “sweetness”. The wines were decanted, filtered and returned to the wash bottles.

The most interesting fact was that they were all big on bouquet when we decanted it around 4 ish and at around 6pm, some of them have completely changed their character and have moved onto new hights.

Here is a quick summmary:

The Paringa Estate 2000 was very smooth and “merlot” like. This wine developed very little with the exposure to air. According to an Australian present, Mornington Peninsula – where Paringa is based – is very south and the temperature is normally too cool to cultivate shiraz.

As expected, 2002 E&E Black Pepper Shiraz (Barossa Valley)was excellent and had a bit of “pepper” kick. But what was surprising was that 1998 Bowen Estate (Coonawarra)developed a very peppery and even peppermint after taste at 6pm when it showed no signs of this at 4pm.

The 1998 Lawson’s Padthway, Orland Wines (Rowland Flat)) had a disel after taste and this was a winner of  several Gold Medals. By the way, I don’t believe in Gold Medals as I was at a wine show earlier this year and less than 20% of the wines on show were entered in the various competitons. The Gold Medal winners in several catergories were ok and no more.

The 1994 Stonewell, Peter Lehman (Barossa Valley ) was amasingly young despite the age and is still slightly tannic. This will keep easily for another 10 years.

The Two Hands Wines  – Bella’s Garden (Barossa Valley) and Lily’s Garden (McLaren Vale) were as expected big and plummy, almost inky. These wines developed very little between 4-6. They were almost releasing their full potential immediately.

The real stars of the show were 1999 Octavius Edition X, Yalumba  (Angaston) and St Andrews, Taylor’s Wines (Clara Valley). They were both highy complex wines that lingered on your palate.

As a result of this tasting, I am reconsidering my stance on Shiraz. I think that most of these wines need to be decanted and left for a couple of hours to develop before being served. I tend to uncock and finish the bottle within an hour.

(See my previous article for the list of wines at this tasting. Some of these wines are not marketed in this country. The only wines that are easily available are Two Hands Wines and Peter Lehman.)

Eddie@bottlesandcooks.com

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