Sunday, May 20, 2007

WINE: TATIARRA ‘Culled Barrel’ Shiraz 2005

Type: Red
Origin: Heathcote, Victoria
Approx Cost: $20
http://www.cambrianshiraz.com/

Calypso tried to dodgy this one up. A couple of weeks ago he told me he’d ordered two bottles of a wine that sounded interesting. But he wouldn’t tell my why it was interesting or who made it, instead saying that he would serve it to me blind and tell me more about it afterwards so I didn’t prejudge it for being, as I now know, a culled wine. Going into it all I knew was that it came from Victoria, cost approx $20 and was Shiraz. I tried to coax the name out of him but it wasn’t to be.

Veeeeery dark black/purple in colour had me interested initially. It looked powerful but I had no idea that it was a 15.5% wine monster. Quite a nice spicey, berry-filled nose. Very different on the palate to a normal Shiraz. Plum, ripe, juicy currants and dark berries with a bit of spice and oak. Lengthy finish of pepper and edgy tannins. Didn’t show excessive alcohol, which was good.

Opened up quite well over the course of an hour or so, and would probably be even better with more time in the glass. I wasn’t blown away, but it was quite good for what it was. If I didn’t know the price beforehand I would have guessed it was somewhere between $30-40, so this is a very good value wine.

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