Sorry not sorry this is my last one. Ridiculous tertiary… pretty much all there is. It creates a full, ripe mouthfeel and nose, but the fruit is fading hard. Gobs of leather and roasted berry–it’s easy to call a wine like this “beautiful” at first glimpse but then you start looking deeper and the shallowness becomes apparent. Crusty, carmelized decadence can be mis-interpreted as “fruit” quite easily in a wine where the date on the label provides more wistfullness and anticipation than the actual contents.

Spicy and delicious, it has polished out to quite the darling-child, deep leftovers of concentrated Barossa fruit now eucalyptus-tinged and riding on velvet dust. Tannin almost to zero, a mere chalky spectre still in perfect balance with concentrated memories. Asphalt and petrol still make their appearance, a delicious, ridiculously-nuanced wine drinking just-past prime. I would buy another 6-pack of these in a heartbeat–both the Syrah and the Grenache have evolved so beautifully. But here it is time to say goodbye. A glance at their website says their marketing has gone a flawed direction, and no more do these outstanding single-varieties appear to be offered.

I’m gonna sit and cuddle this wine all night. I’ll have to floss it out of my teeth tomorrow, but no complaints here. Absolutely fabulous.

2009 ROCLAND ESTATE Shiraz Barossa Valley South Australia 14.5

http://www.rocland.com.au/