Producer: Sylvan Springs

Grapes: Shiraz (presumably 100%, but it doesn’t say so on the tech sheet)

Appellation: McLaren Vale (Australia)

Vineyard: Soils are “grey sand over ironstone gravel layer over orange permeable clay.” At least some of the fruit comes from the Blewitt Springs sub-region.

Winemaking: No new oak – the wine spent 12 months in a mix of 2-4 year old French and American oak barrels.

Alcohol: 14.6%

Price: I paid around $12 or $13 at Costco. I found the receipt: $10.99

My tasting notes: Big, wild, brambly fruit on the nose along with floral/violet and cedar notes. It’s a bit “fumey” from the alcohol. On the palate, it’s dense and weighty, hitting you with smooth-textured, mouth-filling blackberry and black currant flavors with an herbal edge. Despite the extracted fruit, it manages to feel tense, muscular – I even wrote down lean, though that’s often used to indicate lack of fruit, which isn’t the case here. There’s a very nice minerality as well and it finishes with a pleasant little sharpness or bitterness.

Overall impression: This is striking the right chord for me tonight. Give me expressive fruit, but balanced with minerality and acid, and I’m a happy wino. B+

Free association:

More info:

2000 cases produced.

This wine was scored 90 points by Jay Miller in Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.