The Story Westgate Vineyard Shiraz 2008 (Grampians, Vic)
Screwcap, $40, 13.5%

For those uninitiated with the story about The Story, Mr Halliday wraps it up nicely here, including a review of the 2006 vintage of this very wine. Suffice to say that this 2008 is certainly built in much the same fashion, and it’s a fashion that I like indeed.

A concerted step up in concentration and structure over the entry level regional wine, what I like most about this wine is its mid weight power. As befitting the modest alcohol, the palate lacks the outright power and beasty richness of say, Mt Langhi, but replaces it with a silken, understated and yet utterly Grampianish, rich mid palate of licoricey black/blueberry fruit and almost sly grape tannins.

The glory here is in that mid palate, which on day one [I drank this over two nights, in the renowned fashion] tasted almost grape concentrate like in its grapey richness and sweetness, before settling down to a much more drier, yet still fruit drenched expression on day two.

Perhaps the only caveat with this wine lays in the oak. Day one I had this pointed lower as the toastiness was just a little dominant for my oak sensitive palate. Day two though and it was all sexy time Grampians fruit in a glass. Which tells us that it needs a serious (hours) decant or some time in the dungeon (About 3-5yrs by my guesstimate) before drinking.

Great stuff regardless. 18.4