In spite of the wet 2011
year being very very tricky, Paracombe
Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2011 ($23; 14.8% alcohol; screw cap) is typical of
the gentle, dead-reliable reds released year-in-year out by the Drogemuller
family in their beautiful vineyard and winery complex above the Torrens Gorge
at Paracombe.
This is exquisite Shiraz, warm and polished to a silky sheen. As
usual with this brand, the wine doesn't seem quite as strong as that alcohol
number infers: its acidity and splinter of spicy French oak balance its plummy
opulence nicely.
To get premium high country fruit like this on the market at
$23 is remarkably generous: across the river at Balhanna Shaw & Smith are
selling their 2013 Shiraz at $44. Some would argue that that extra $21 is
justified in that S&S won the best wine of the show in the Adelaide Hills
wine races late last year. But. But. But. I think the Paracombe wine has better
form and balance.
That's always been the
Droggie manner: look after your customers.
There's another Paracombe
Shiraz - same vintage; same alcohol; same price - with a free sploosh of
Viognier which seems to have brought the tannins into a more crisp focus.
Rather than adding ripe apricot jam to what is usually quite ripe jammy Shiraz
in most Australian makers' attempts, Paracombe has got it right: this is what
Viognier should be used for. If picked fresh enough, it has quite bright
phenolic tannins which will work the Shiraz phenolics over beautifully. If
anything, this clever blend could use another year two of cellar to be drunk at
its optimum.
Paracombe Adelaide Hills Somerville Shiraz 2010 ($69; 16% alcohol; cork) comes from the 1903 vineyard
of Jas Somerville, the first bloke to plant vines on the Paracombe plateau.
Seventy
years back when John Davouren was perfecting his St Henri Claret recipe
opposite Penfolds Grange at Auldana, he loved using the gentle, rich fruit of
these vines. Fifty years later, when Paul Drogemuller attempted to buy the last
(barely) surviving patch of the vineyard the owner refused to part with the
ground, so Paul purchased the 500 vines as individual plants, took them back to
his vineyard up the hill, and replanted them around his house in 1997.
While
Paul and son Ben let this fruit fully ripen to alcohols higher than many
nowadays prefer,or more likely admit to, it's easy to see how such gentle flavour went so well in the
blend of Davouren's St Henri - it would have provided what Max Schubert
purringly called called 'a mother wine.'
Here you can purr over the mother wine,
unblended. While 16 is a fair few alcohols, this vintage in particular seems so
silky and luxuriously balanced you'd never know. Yum. Steak please.
photos Philip White
No comments:
Post a Comment