Blue Pyrenees Estate Red 2006

Blue Pyrenees Estate Red 2006 (Pyrenees, Vic)
14.5%, Screwcap, $45
Source: Sample
www.bluepyrenees.com.au

It's typically a bitsa blend of a wine, is the Blue Pyrenees 'Red', with this vintage composed of Cabernet Sauvignon (51%), Merlot (35%) and Shiraz (14%). It works though, in a cellar worthy way, and it has worked for many years, with the style, in my opinion, representing plenty of what is good about the Pyrenees, not least of which is how attractive the Cabernet blends can be.

In fact, it irks me that there aren't more blends of this fashion. Bring on the mongrel wine I say, with bits and pieces chosen according to what looks good in the vineyard, quasi-Bordeaux style (but with Aussie grape sourcing flexibility).

Anyway, rant over. This wine is still painfully young (and the Blue Pyrenees Reserve Red typically needs a decade) and it's plenty minty, but there's ultimately enough here to make it work.

It smells, as mentioned, like a serious Pyrenees red, with lightly roasted, minty, plum and blackberry aromatics punctuated by some heady volatility. The interest though is on the palate, which is dry, minty, tannic and firm, the flavours quite aggressive, but also showing an uncommon depth and power.

In the wash it's a polarising wine perhaps, with nothing elegant or approachable to be seen, yet still chocked with well enough stuffing to live and live and get better and better. Hold for as long as you can. 17.3/90++