Aerin’s Vineyard Heathcote Shiraz 2008 (Heathcote, Vic)
$16.50, Screwcap, 14%

The back label notes that this is a Seppelt product, though Seppelt winemaker Jo Marsh is the driving force behind the label. The label really is quite attractive – it looks more like a t shirt design than a wine label. Whats in the bottle though sadly doesn’t match the packaging.

It smells juicy but also quite thin and strained on the nose – sure signs of young vines/and or overcropping. Its musky and confected fruit, mainly in the blackberry and plum spectrum. On the palate its much of the same – thin, sweet & sour fruit, lacking in real concentration but utterly berryish all the same. Admittedly its very young, but it has little structure to carry it forward, rather it just falls away at the finish.

A label this attractive deserves better fruit…14