Cuiver Reserve Château Bottled Nuit St. Wogga Wogga

Spent yesterday at another Wine tasting -- this time for Southcorp's line of Australian wines (Penfolds, Wynn, Lindemans, Rosemount Estate). The highlight was of course, the opportunity to try the '97 and '98 Grange (I like the '97 -- but that's me, the '98 has been fetching $300+ in auctions already). The trend seems to be that the industry is trying to fill the gap in their product line between the introductory wines that are fruit forward and inexpensive (read: Lindemans, Jacob's Creek, Yellowtail, Black Swan) and the high end stuff (Grange, Rosemount, etc) that would fall into the $15+ range.

My favorite of the day (besides the '97 Grange) was the Rosemount Estate Orange Shiraz -- great nose, and real sense of terrior (rather than the attempted predictability of the blends from year to year), and long finish. My opinion of it held up even at the very end of the tasting when I went back and tried it again. very unique -- and that's a plus in my book. Also modestly priced...

Other favorites included the St. Henri (Shiraz) and Penfold Bin series of wines -- 389 (Cab/Shiraz), 407(Cab), and 707(Cab, with a massive back end you could eat off of) and a little tidbit that we picked up from one of the reps -- the fruit that used to make the Bin 389 are the grapes that don't quite make into the Grange -- in other words, really really good fruit on it own. Apparently it will cellar alongside it's big brother very nicely, at a fraction of the cost.