WTN: My Rare Venture Into Aussie Wines.

WTN: 2004 OliverHill Jimmy Section Shiraz, McLaren Vale

Yesterday, before walking over to Radio City to meet with my wife and catch the Fab Faux (which, btw, was a very good performance by a group of terrific NYC musicians who, in their words, “are just being goofy” with Beatles psychedelia music), I unscrewed the cap off a bottle and ordered in a half-and-half of white ricotta/mozzarella and pepperoni/tomato sauce from our neighborhood pizza joint.

The black inky wine with its fine tannin and high acidity, was dominated by ripe fruit. Each sip was big and lush, and came with layers and waves of ripe strawberries, cherries, blueberries and blackberries. I was pleased to note that the disclosed 14.8% abv was just very slightly evident. I recall liking a previous vintage of this wine about 4 years ago, but this bottle is so one-dimensional with its big all-fruit brawn and it does not fit my current style preference.

BTW, the wine went better with the white all-cheese pizza. It was overwhelmed by the tomato-sauce half of my pizza. B-.

Ramon

It was overwhelmed by the tomato-sauce half of my pizza.

An Australian monster being overwhelmed by the food instead of vice-versa. That's something!

I was kind of surprised, too.

But, yes, a highly-acidic and strong-flavored pepperoni pizza totally brought down the big fruity Australian. Must be that famous New York water used in the dough.