Australian Shiraz (Issue 123, July 2007)
|
 Ralph Kyte-Powell and his panel find the crowd-pleasers carry the day.
Consistency is one of the greatest virtues in wine. Wine types that can boast reliable quality across the years, despite the vagaries of climate, are bound to end up favourites with consumers. One of the wine styles that most often ticks the boxes for reliability across the years and value for money is Australian Shiraz. In this tasting John Hancock, Tony Bish, Jane Boyle and I found once again just how user-friendly this great antipodean wine can be. And you don’t have to pay a fortune to enjoy top drops.
The general formula of ripe berry fruit, robust flavour, good body, depth and balance gave us an abundance of award-winning wines. Nearly 80 per cent of the 129 wines submitted achieved a star rating on the Cuisine scale. In the New Zealand Syrah tasting, the figure was a little over 60 per cent. The panellists were impressed, describing the Australian wines variously as “old friends”, “crowd-pleasers”, “satisfying”, “likeable” and “ultra consistent”. If these wines did have any shortcomings as a group, it was perhaps the low number of really spectacular benchmark wines in the mix, with only five wines earning the coveted five stars. That said, if it’s valuefor-money red wine with tons of generous flavour and an easy-going nature you’re after, Australian Shiraz is still hard to beat.
Tasting Panel
With me on the panel for the Syrah and Shiraz tastings were John Hancock, CEO of Trinity Hill wines in Hawke’s Bay, Tony Bish, chief winemaker for Sacred Hill Wines and Jane Boyle, trading and production manager for Cardmember Wines. John has extensive experience with Syrah and has long been a Rhône wine devotee, while Tony has focused on top-flight Hawke’s Bay Syrah with Sacred Hill’s Deerstalker label. Jane has been involved in the New Zealand and Australian wine industries for more than 20 years and has previously judged at the International Chardonnay Challenge, Air New Zealand Wine Awards and Royal Easter Show Wine Awards, among others. Kay Morganty, Dianne McKinnon and Denise Hubble stewarded superbly and Burleigh Trading accommodated everyone in sterling fashion once again.
|
Cuisine Top Ten Australian Shiraz
To qualify for Top Ten status, wines must be readily available for general purchase. Some wines might rate as high or higher but are hard to find. Wines are listed in order of final scores.
|
|
|
1 |
|
The Willows Vineyard Barossa Valley Shiraz 2003 |
|
|
2 |
|
Thorn-Clarke Shotfire Ridge Shiraz 2005 |
|
|
3 |
|
Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2004 |
|
|
4 |
|
Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz 2005 |
|
|
5 |
|
Saltram Mamre Brook Shiraz 2004 |
|
|
6 |
|
Gemtree Obsidian Shiraz 2004 |
|
|
7 |
|
Saltram No 1 Shiraz 2003 |
|
|
8 |
|
Shingleback Shiraz 2004 |
|
|
9 |
|
Ingoldby Shiraz 2004 |
|
|
10 |
|
Henry’s Drive Shiraz 2005 |
|
|
