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 this, composed of Cabernet Sauvignon (51%), Merlot (35%) and Shiraz (14%).

It works though, in a cellar-worthy way, with the style representing plenty of what is good about the Pyrenees.

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.

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

It smells like a serious Pyrenees red, with lightly roasted, minty, plum and blackberry aromatics punctuated by some heady volatility. The interest 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 the stuffing to live and live. Hold for as long as you can. 17.3/90++