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| Hello Vicar! |
14.5%, Screwcap, $50
Source: Sample
www.chapelhillwine.com.au
They're doing good things down there at Chapel Hill, crafting modern - yet not flashy modern - wines of substance and regional swagger.
Lots of Mclaren Vale goodness with this Vicar Shiraz too (in the best possible fashion). Opulent, black forest cake fruit/oak nose, lots of mid palate richness, genuine fruit tannins and persistence a go-go signals this as a wine of super high quality indeed. A vintage triumph even. There's still a dip of that figgy, strained fruit desiccation on the nose, a reminder of just how annoyingly hard the year was, but it's not enough to be a distraction (though I think it won't be as long lived because of it).
In Vale terms this is absolute top end. If you consider yourself a Vale Shiraz man/woman then get on board a bottle of this - I don't think you'll be disappointed. 17.9/93
2009/10 WCA Wine Journalism 'Young Gun; Wine Judge; Gourmet Traveller WINE and Breathe Hunter Valley magazine contributor; LattéLife & The Retiree columnist; National Liquor News tasting panellist and Chablis lover who fell into the liquor industry chiefly to buy cheap beer.
They are doing some good stuff at the mo. And I really liked this. Strangely like the Chosen Road Block I detected a sea salt taste or in this case salted caramels (salinity of the geology?) but weirdly I picked up this taste in the Piombo vineyard in a Petagna release. Good stuff AG. I'm 94 BTW
ReplyDeleteA regional character for sure - I see it in Vale reds all the time. Salted caramels are excellent.
ReplyDeleteNow been open 5 days and still looking good. Win.
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