Brick red, murky and impenetrable, and effusive eucalyptus on the nose. Quite shocked the amount of euc on this, it borderlines on something I would consider flawed, but I’m keeping an open mind. Dull cherry preserves lay low inside, but a side-note to the minty vegetal.
I’ve never had this bottling from Peter Lehmann before, I have been quite the fan–classically–of the The Barossa bottling from this producer. This one is a bit cheaper and since I haven’t seen The Barossa for some time on shelves, was curious. Plus, it’s only 14-oh, which obviously sparks the curiosity, as the ABV for aussie shiraz is almost as predictable as Rhone labels.
Dull and lifeless in the mouth, I’ve had these cheaper bottlings from both Lehmann and Wolf Blass up to and beyond age ten which were WONDERFUL, so I am going to give this one the benefit of the doubt and say it is perched in that awkward stage between lavish young fruit and decadent tertiary polish. Dark and brooding, the fruit a bitter cherry with a severe drying note mid-palate. Tannins quite forth-right but rather uninteresting start-to-finish.
There’s nothing significantly *awry* with it, and it bangs pretty hard above its 12.99 PP, but all-in-all it it is just plain NOT interesting. One-dimensional and still managing a bit of heat in the finish, obviously you can always do WAYYYY worse for even DOUBLE this price, I’m gonna suggest a hard pass.
2014 PETER LEHMANN ‘Portrait’ Shiraz Barossa Australia 14.0
Stephen McConnell 