10 Sunday Nov 2013
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Cheap and cheerful for $12. This is a must-have wine for everyday drinking. It offers juicy Malbec flavors of plums, blackberry, vanilla and it does it all in an easy to drink style. Slight tannins and juicy acidity give this a great party wine mouthfeel. It handles pasta, burgers, steaks and just plain old pre-dinner drinking really well. This winery is consistent and the wine can be found everywhere. I am a fan and think it’s a respectable 87 point wine worthy of 4 stars. Salut….
28 Monday Oct 2013
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I couldn’t help myself. The extra packaging sold me on this wine, I just had to try it. I did not care for the 2008 Reserve Shiraz that much and figured I would give this vintage a chance to shine.
A beautiful nose of blueberry and vanilla with some ripe plums got me very excited. The initial attack was very tasty indeed, showing off the plums and berries with some pretty forceful tannins. I was bothered by the balance of the wine though and wondered why. I am no expert but there was a certain component that was out of line and it took about 3 hours for it to sort itself out. The wine then became much nicer to drink and I could enjoy the dryness of the tannins and the medium acidity. The fruit remained prevalent, never swaying. This Barossa Shiraz cost me about $12 and should be widely available. I think it could use another 2 years in a cellar to help with the balance and should evolve into a nice weekday dinner wine. 3 stars and 87 points from me. Salut….
17 Thursday Oct 2013
Posted in Wine reviews
I have written about this wine twice, both times it sucked. The 2009 Denisiane completely underwhelmed me and pissed me off because I had bought a case on high recommendations. I have given it some time to sort itself out (actually I was ignoring it). Tonight, it came through, sorta.
After last night’s epic dinner of Ribeyes etc, we had some leftover meat and mushrooms. I wanted to spice things up so I concocted a spicy Panang curry comprising the leftovers, peas, onions and sliced almonds. The curry was medium hot on the spice scale and the ingredients melded beautifully. I had no aspirations of pairing this wine well when I came across it in the cellar. Almost a ‘throwaway’ I figured it couldn’t hurt and besides- I was not about to open something good for the curry.
Regulation purple color in the glass it actually offered up plums and dark currants in the nose. Prior to eating the curry, I tasted it and was not overly impressed. Once I got stuck in, the wine surprised me. The fruit actually sharpened, the tannins cut the heat and the acidity was beautiful. I could not have paired a better red with this South East Asian dish! After dinner I let my taste buds normalize so I could further evaluate the wine. It was starting to come alive. More dark plums and blackberry came across. The tannins were quite dry and persistent. The acidity was back to normal, which was good.
I panned this wine big time. For $12 I thought it was crap and had no chance of improving. I was wrong. It has evolved and come out of its shell. Still a very basic red table wine I think should now garner 85 points. However, seeing as I had to work on it for over 2 years it only deserves 2 stars from me. I would never buy it again, but actually look forward to the future evolution of what I still have in cellar. Salut….
PS. I got most of the way through dinner when I realized that peas are not Paleo diet friendly. Sorry Moxie, I cheated…..but not on purpose.
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