Wild Duck Creek Springflat Shiraz 2006
$65, Screwcap, 16.5%

I really wanted to like this. I’ve had the pleasure of a few older (than this at least) Wild Duck Creek reds and actually rather enjoyed them. When I read the ABV on this Springflat though I was worried – I’ve never had a table wine over about 15% that was remotely balanced. Still, if anyone could do it, surely it would be ‘Duck’…

The wine itself smelt superb – Exotic even – with Turkish delight, rhubarb and cherry liqueur chocolates. The palate starts pretty well too, with a very ripe, roasted tomato & red fruit hitting with a first flurry of rich full flavour. But the longer it sits in the glass, the more obviously overripe it becomes, the alcohol acting like a scimitar, cutting off the finish and leaving only blurry heat behind.

On one hand then, this is a major dissapointment – it has that sameness that overripe reds get, where the terroir gets burnt off. But in th other hand. I think this is still an ok wine. It’s been shortened no doubt, yet it still drinks like a Heathcote red.

It’s damning with faint praise perhaps, but you can just feel how good this wine would be in more supportive vintages, and unlike, say, the unattractively hot Turkey Flat from last week, I comfortably finished two glasses of this. Hard wine to rate then. 16.7