Notes from the Philippine Wine Merchants tasting of the top Shirazes they import. As Hill of Grace was one of the featured wines, I also brought a Grange for a select group of tasters as I had always wanted to taste Grange with HOG side by side. Too bad no one had any Astralis handy.
We started with some relatively minor wines:
John Duval Entity Shiraz 2006 - Deep color with ripe berries on the nose. A rich wine with a streak of acidity for balance. I appreciate the subdued oakiness of this wine. Dryish. After two hours in the glass, the finished seemed to be getting watery. Still, a good wine.
Jim Barry McRae Wood Shiraz 2005 - Caramel and a bit of heat. Sweet fruit, spicy, fragrant wood. Good length. Very good and ready to drink.
Rosemount Hill of Gold Shiraz 2001 - A little must, soft, subdued. Acidic on the finish. A good wine but seems prematurely aged and definitely not in the class of the other wines tasted.
Now to the main event:
Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz 2001 - Rich and soft, Chocolate on the nose. Spicy and with prominent acidity. Good stuff but not really special in my opinion.
John Duval Eligo Shiraz 2005 - Black. Curry spice. Very rich, meaty. Impeccable balance. Defnitely needs time but already showing real class. Outstanding.
Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz 2002 - The darkest wine so far. Bittersweet chocolate. Perfectly ripe fruit. Very chocolatey. Dried fruit. Tannic finish. Despite the finish, this wine is in a real nice place now. Showing beautifully. All this needs is a good steak to make it perfect. Outstanding.
Henschke Hill of Grace 2001 - Rich but started out rather tight. Sweet fruit. Later, it softened up and proved itself the most elegant wine in this lineup. Lots of ripe berries and dried fruit. Very easy to drink but not really showing a lot of complexity now. I'm guessing maybe 5 more years in the bottle will improve this tremendously.
Penfolds Grange 1996 - Deep color.Fragrant wood on the nose. Still tight despite 2 hours decanting. Powerful and dry with deep, deep flavors. Oddly, some bubblegum showing. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't really show too well. Either it should be left in the bottle for the next 10 years or it should be decanted for 6 hours. Certainly you get the feeling that this wine is capable of greatness but it's bottled up pretty tight now.
We ended the night with 3 bubblies:
Jansz NV - A refreshing, straightforward bubbly without any pretensions.
Jansz 2002 - This is more like it. Some richness here. Good fruit and yeastiness with just a touch of an oxidative character. Very good.
Piper Heidsieck Brut NV - A medium-weight Champagne of real character. Delicious stuff and very classy. Very good.
Although the reds were all different vintages so that any meaningful comparison would be difficult, I still appreciate that I was given the opportunity to taste this range of some of Australia's greatest.