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  • About Me – Andrew Graham
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  • Beer

Cape Mentelle Zinfandel 2004

August 25, 2009

Cape Mentelle Zinfandel 2004 (Margaret River, WA)
$45, Screwcap, 16%

It’s time I came clean about something. I would like to admit, to everyone, that I am an ABV Nazi. It’s a source of bias, perhaps, but indicative of my personal preferences, that I almost unconsciously find myself driven away from high alcohol wines. What’s more, I tend to find alcohol poking out of even seemingly lower alcohol drinks, just waiting to destroy everything with its spirity ways. It’s not just wine either, I can’t drink Cognac, Brandy or Whisky (neat), as all I taste is alcohol, alcohol, alcohol.

As a result, I simply can’t enjoy wines like this, as I just can’t get past the booze. Not now, not ever, no thankyou. And even though the theory is oft repeated, high alcohol is so rarely, if ever balanced. So there.

The wine then – Deep blood red in colour, with a volatile Boysenberry nose. Too volatile. There is also a mixed ripeness, a meaty hardness to the nose too, a hint of stewed cooked fruit and uneven bunches, with the oak sitting beside the fruit, having not quite integrated properly. Fruitcake with lots of brandy is the overriding impression. But I quite like fruitcake though, so down it goes.

The palate is a big boozy ride of spirity, rum and raisin, fruitcake & fig jam fruit. Lots of quite luscious flavour, but also LOTS of alcohol, the oak again besides the fruit. To me its plain unbalanced but the redeeming factor is the big hearty richness. It’s massive and broad, but that’s kind of the attraction too. It’s a big mouthful of unstructured fruit, and, whilst I was no fan, it had the rest of the dinner table singing its plump praises.

My score then gives a half nod to that meaty attraction, but also half a nod to my own dislikes (which means my head is thus spinning round in circles). 16.5

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  • About me – Andrew Graham


    At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, doing a degree that I didn't really like, and a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say I discovered wine, my uni degree morphed into something completely different and wine/beer took over my life.

    Almost twenty years later and I currently spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.

    While wearing my writer cap I write features for the likes of National Liquor News, Gourmet Traveller WINE and the RAS plus I'm a Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert. Read more about me here or get in touch to book your next wine event with me here.

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