I haven’t reviewed a McLaren Vale wine for a little while, the last being a fairly uninspiring sangiovese from 2011. A return to the region’s calling card – shiraz – and the good McLaren Vale vintage of 2010 sees a better result with this wine.
Typically purple in colour, Christmas cake, crunchy dried herbs, chocolate, sweet fruited plums, cloves and crushed ants constitute this wine’s aromas. I have clearly been drinking a lot of cooler climate wines lately, because the brooding fruit sweetness and suggestion of complexity immediately transported my mind to this warm to hot region south of Adelaide. That a wine might provide a little mental holiday of this kind, putting to one side because of its alcoholic content, is what makes a lot of wine interesting.
The palate is more balanced than concentrated or powerful. An acid core is detectable, with probably short of medium length, and rounded flavours of plums and cloves. If I am to nit pick a little, and since I am writing a wine review I am afraid that comes with the territory, it is perhaps not as complex on the palate as I was hoping given its quite attractive aroma. Perhaps it will grow in the bottle. However, at $26, I think the wine is a good one and I enjoyed drinking it. It is ready to drink now and able to be drunk over the next five or more years. Good
Abv: 14%
Price: $26
Source: sample
Vendors: Check http://www.wine-searcher.com/
Website: http://www.serafinowines.com.au
Tasted: 2012
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