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WBW3: Australian Shiraz

by Jeanne Horak on November 3, 2004 5 Comments in Wine & beer, Wine Blogging Wednesday

Wbw2

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. And that’s pretty much the tale of what happened this time round with Wine Blogging Wednesday.

I was pretty excited about Viv from Seattle Bon Vivant’s choice of Australian Shiraz as the theme. Coming from a New World wine-producing country myself, I find Aussie reds very accessible and very much suited to my palate. Because of their worldwide popularity, there is an abundance of Australian wines on the shelves here in London, so it didn’t look as if it would be too difficult to find something nice to drink for this month’s event. As I have mentioned, on the day of the terrine edition of Is My Blog Burning I was having a little lunch party and was planning to wow everyone with the terrine before launching into a nice wintry main course. Having decided that said main course would be beef in Guinness stew, it dawned on me that this was a dish that might play very nicely with Aussie Shiraz… so I told the guests each to bring at least one bottle of Aussie Shiraz and planned for a little impromptu horizontal tasting. So far so good. I went shopping for my Shiraz and found that it is quite hard to steer clear of the Hardy’s and Jacob’s Creek wine behemoths and try to find something a little more off the beaten track. What I really wanted to try was the Penfolds Shiraz – I think it was one named after a Bin number, but can’t quite recall the name now. In any event, it cost £40, so I didn’t think that was justifiable!! In the end I settled for a Shiraz from the McGuigan vineyards.

Bit before we uncork anything, a few words on Shiraz. There is some dispute as to the origins of Shiraz – some say it originated in Persia (modern day Iran) from near the city of Shiraz and was from there brought to France where it is still planted as Syrah, but tests on French Syrah grapes show no evidence of this theory and confirm that Syrah originated from two ordinary French grapes, Mondeuse Blanche and Dureza, both from the Northern Rhône region. But the tenuous connection between the Iranian city and the grape lives on, if only in name, in Australia and South Africa where it is called Shiraz as opposed to the French and American Syrah – but it is one and the same grape. Shiraz is a very vigorous growing grape. It produces large bunches of anywhere up to 130 berries per bunch. They are long and loose bunches with very good disease resistance. Shiraz does very well in a cool climate and thrives in warm spring weather to produce a strikingly peppery wine. Here is some more info on Shiraz if you are interested.

OK, so we were all set for a nice Shiraz tasting last Sunday. Plans started to come undone when two of our guests called at the last minute to cancel because of illness. Not a problem – there was still another guest coming, and of course I had a bottle of Shiraz. But when said guest arrived, she had brought a Grenache-Shiraz blend as opposed to a 100% Shiraz – so after all my planning we were left with exactly one bottle of Shiraz! Anyway, undeterred, we opened and tasted both before pronouncing them sound and finishing them off 😉 For those of you who are interested, here are my tasting notes:

The McGuigan Gold Shiraz 2003 (South-Eastern Australia) 13,5% alc.

Colour: Very purply red with garnet tones. Lovely colour.
Nose: Very shy nose. Ripe berries?? None of the pepperiness I expected.
Palate: Very soft tannins, lots of Maraschino cherry fruit, vanilla on the palate. Medium bodied but with a very short finish. Very accessible – easy drinking, but unremarkable.

Jacob’s Creek Grenache Shiraz 2003 (South-Eastern Australia) 14% alc.

Colour: Very very deep garnet with purple edges. Almost opaque.
Nose: Almost exactly like port! If it had been a blind tasting I would have guessed port…
Palate: Quite a big wine but with fairly soft tannins. Ripe berry fruits on palate, very little spiciness. Medium bodied (more body than the McGuigan though!) and medium finish. Pleasant and uncomplicated.

In summary, I was disappointed with my wine. This is probably partly due to the fact that I really took pot luck when I bought it (no advance research – I just headed for the booze aisle in Tesco…) and partly because I was not willing to spend a lot of money! I was brought up on Shirazes that displayed all the peppery, spicy characteristics that one expects of the grapes, made with enough tannins to add complexity and structure. The McGuigan wine, however, was clearly made to enjoy now, which is fine, but it would have been nice to have SOME varietal characteristics showing… For your money, I thought the Jacob’s Creek was the better deal. It also illustrated why single cultivar wines are not always better – sometimes a wine positively cries out for some blending to add complexity, and this was the case here.

As my parting shot, I would like to share with you the little slogan printed on the McGuigan bottle: "Far, far too easy to drink". I could not have said it better myself, sir!

More deliciousness for you!

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  1. anthony says

    November 3, 2004 at 11:39 pm

    The Penfold’s “bins” can be confusing but a hobby in themselves. It may have been a Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, which is the poor/shrewd man’s choice instead of Grange Hermitage.
    I think winemakers take a bit less care with the lower end one’s as it’s accepted here as a bit of a roughy.

    Reply
  2. Spittoon.biz says

    November 5, 2004 at 9:52 am

    Wine Blogging Wednesday – Australian Shiraz.

    As selected by Seattle Bon Vivant this months theme is Australian Shiraz. A rummage through the Castel dominated shelves of Oddbins revealed a wine “so new I haven’t tried it yet” according to the assistant. Just wondered why it was stuck on the…

    Reply
  3. Jeanne says

    November 8, 2004 at 12:03 pm

    Anthony,
    I think you may be right with the bin number… I reckoned I could get a good Bordeaux for that price , so didn’t buy…
    What’s accepted in Oz as a bit of a roughy?? Be more specific! 🙂

    Reply
  4. anthony says

    November 9, 2004 at 12:01 am

    Yes Maam.
    The shiraz range, and maybe it’s just me, is usually a kind of none too fancy she’ll be right choice for barbies etc. while something with a Cab in it is the finer dining choice. My theory is that this puts less quality pressure on the makers and they shift their efforts elsewhere. Not that they don’t care about them, it’s just not seen as their flagship wines (a Benz van is still a Benz but it’s not an S series). I had a four year old bottle of Fonty’s Pool Shiraz from down south the other day and my friend hated but I could see its point. It’s got that kind of initial counterintuitively likeable whisky bite and that’s not a bad thing.

    Reply
  5. Bernie's Bargain Wine Reviews says

    May 1, 2005 at 2:11 am

    Jacob’s Creek Shiraz 2003

    Tonight’s bottle was $6.99 and comes from another neighborhood convenience store, the Congressional Market. First impressions of this wine is that it is has a harsh taste. I am letting it sit in the hope that it gets better, but so far no luck. I wil…

    Reply

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Jeanne Horak-Druiff is a freelance food and travel writer as well as a recipe developer and photographer. She is a South African by birth and a Londoner by choice who has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Please get in touch to commission work from her. Read More…

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