Flaxman Wines Eden Valley Shiraz 2008 (Eden Valley, SA)
14%, Screwcap, $45
Source: Sample
www.flaxmanwines.com.au

It’s a biggun’ this vintage, as befitting the warmer year, built in a style that is fuller and less classically Eden in profile. Still, it avoids the dessication obvious in some Barossa Valley floor 08 Shiraz (Flaxmans Valley does it again).

Ripe. Chunky ripe. Concentrated sweet fruit ripe, with a real plum essence character to the nose, if edged with that hard, quasi vegetal edge of the vintage. The palate follows with a massive flow of juicy, grape-sugar-sweet, boysenberry fruit, the ripeness all around the mid palate mark and tailing away through the finish. It’s soft, round and utterly un-tannic, fitting the fruit bomb profile of late 90s South Australian reds without the excesses.

End result? A well made wine for the vintage, if a fraction mono dimensional for big love. 16.8/89