Tyrrell's Rufus Stone Shiraz 1999
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A great wine, this McLaren Vale Shiraz is gaining a strong reputation for it's full flavoured style. It exhibits fresh aromas of ripe berry fruit with a touch of spicy pepper and the sweet lift of vanillin oak. Tha palate has ripe fleshy fruit flavours which are complexed by hints of chocolate and oak with a distinctive finish. The 15 month maturation in small oak, prior to bottling, have helped give this wine a soft velvety tannin and structure to last.
This wine is excellent drinking now and until 2008. Medium to full bodied, this wine possesses great finesse, making it ideally suited to foods such as roast lamb and beef, casseroles, semi-hard and hard cheeses.
Though Syrah originated in the Rhône Valley of France, Australia is home to the oldest Syrah (called Shiraz here) vines on the planet. Found in Australia’s Barossa Valley, where phylloxera has never threated viticulture, these ancient vines are between 140 to 175 years old!
Having brought fame and merit to the country’s wine scene since the early 1950s, namely via the debut of Penfolds Grange, today Syrah (Shiraz) claims rank as the most widely planted grape in Australia. In fact, the amount of land dedicated to Shiraz in Australia is now almost equivalent to what it is in France. Australian Shiraz has its own personality with flavors and aromas of intense blackberry, fruitcake, menthol, tobacco leaf and umami. Conveniently one can find great Australian Shiraz at a variety of price points but the very best will be dense, gloriously complex and capable of long aging.