Rich staining ruby with purple young edges.  An amateurish funk blows off almost instantly, revealing heady mint and vegetal weedy brilliance.  Decadent layers of vibrant ripe fruit calve off in all directions, demanding a decant.  Sinus-cleansing at first, it settles down into a flinty roundness quite at top of game.

The wild wild west is alive here from the first eucalyptus-charged sniff, all about mud-caked boots and gunpowder mingling with nervous horses tied to dripping wood beams with wet leather under rusty corrugated iron roofing dripping rain.  Somewhere a woman in gingham screams, abandoning the apple pies into burning cinnamon as the brass falls into soft tannin rivulets of red dirt.

In the mouth, white pepper and blackberry vie for dominance against more gorgeous weed-eater-shredding of green pulp and a gentle alcohol burn.  A well-made wine, probably Australian domestic-market only but worth the search.

2014 SERAPHIM Heathcote Barrel Select Shiraz 14.9

facebook.com/seraphimwines