A member of the Auswine forum kindly reminded me about my unopened VP's from the Grampians trip last weekend and last night while watching our women cricketers win the One Day Cricket World Cup final was just the right occasion to pull the cork on this wonderful bottle of fortified from the house of Seppelt.
"Colour is remarkably deep with a dark ruby core and mahogany in the outer edges with drizzling legs slowly making their way down the inside of the glass. The nose throws up a sensational melange of integrated nuance including licorice, sweet freshly picked raspberries (I kid you not!) and dark plums adorned with traces of prune, chocolate, sweet earth, old leather, clean spirit, brandied christmas cake, caramel and raisans. The spirit that so dominated the bouquet at first has now receded to the background. The palate is equally impressive with abundant fruit flavour similar to the nose but without as much complexity. The predominant flavours are of licorice, sweet plum and prune within quite a fat mouthfilling texture aided by plenty of grip from the quality spirit on a long and inspiring finish. The sweetness of the palate plays the perfect counterbalancing role to the astringency found in this top Aussie fortified." 94 points. Drink now - 2024+. 20% A/V. Barossa/McLaren Vale blend. No other information on the bottle.
I was totally floored by this wine's performance and as the Aussie women ploughed onto victory in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I had no trouble refilling my glass as the game reached its conclusion.