Look at the colour! Purple!!

Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2010 (Barossa Valley, SA)
14%, Screwcap, $39.95
Source: Sample
www.grantburgewines.com.au

Do you know what the appeal of this Filsell is? It is, to my mind, all about just how ‘right’ it feels, the wine itself made in a style that largely eschews the lighter, more fragrant and less fruit/oak driven modern Barossa mould in favour of classic rich, oaky and dense proportions that are anything but subtle, light or fragrant.

It is a wine that is so sure of what it is trying to be that it sees no need to pander to any sort of fashions, and instead is made in a way that hasn’t really changed in years (and doesn’t need to either). It is, like Grange or the like, something of its own wine (and deserves recognition for it).

That style is evident from very first appearances too, the wine deep and typically dark in colour. It smells like chocolate cake too, of the sort of well toasted American oak that smells like it should come drizzled in custard. Somehow that sort of richness seems entirely appropriate in a Barossan context too, mingling well with the super rich and sweet fruit to make a sort of amalgam of richness and decadence. Is it too sweet? Entirely possible, but it is also just part of the style.

That unequivocal richness parades right through the palate too, the flavours again all about chocolate truffles, rum ‘n’ raisin and macerated
plums, all packaged up in one seamless flow of richness, the palate then topped off with slightly gruff tannins. Again there is no nuance, just overt flavour and plenty of it.

Ultimately you just can’t deny the appeal of a wine like this. It’s anything but cool or modern, yet from a typical Australian Shiraz lovers perspective it is just pure seduction material. Top Filsell from a very top year. 18.5/94