Gorgeous glass-coating, staining garnet, wide, clear and bricking hard.  Dense and opaque with massive nose of crushed-bug minty goodness, thick broken, sap-dripping root dug fresh from deep with back-hoe.  A yeasty overture rounds off the massive fruit, and throughout all a hot note.  The red dust is blistering and spice and still wet and muddy.  An invigorating, classic nose–begging you to smell more.  Sadly, the last orphan of what is a fast-swindling stash of Aussie wines I brought with me when I moved to the Central Coast–the armpit of international wine marketing.  I can buy better wines in FRESNO than in San Luis Obispo.  Bottom-line is: If you enjoy wines from all over the world, don’t move to a burgeoning wine-production region.  All the restaurants, all the stores, all stock bottles from about a 40-mile radius and *cellar-palate* is RIFE.  In the mouth, full round nutty roasted caramel goodness, eucalyptus, red bell pepper and oak–yes there’s oak, and?!?!?–curdling acidity, coating the mouth as the glass, teeth-wiping and clawing.  Not your over-stuffed Barossa or flabby Paso, for sure.  Lean and balanced.  Balaced everywhere and will kill you with THIS THUMB but still absolute sexy nectar with a perfect 12-year patina on it.  Green vibrant tannins still going strong alongside more peppery spice.  I wish I could tell you where to go buy this lovely little 25$ screw-top, but I just can’t.  Not around here.
♦♦
2004 WOLF BLASS Coonwarra Cabernet Sauvignon Gold Label  14-0