ENTHUSIAST OF ALL

At a dinner recently at the fantastic Gary Danko, one of my favorite restaurants in the world, I ordered a glass of the 2005 Mollydooker The Boxer Barossa Valley Shiraz to go with my lamb and squab courses. To my shock and amazement, my waiter brought me out a bottle of the 2006 Barossa Shiraz and appeared ready to pour. “No!” I exclaimed! Wasn’t it common knowledge that the 2005 Barossa vintage is a well-tested monster? I wasn’t about to taste test this youngster with such an immaculate meal; I needed a proven superstar. Unfortunately, there weren’t any other 2005s from Barossa available by the glass, and the waiter suggested that I simply order a bottle. I, however, had other ideas, and noticed a particular 2005 Barossa Shiraz on the bottle list that I’ve had my eye on for some time and haven’t been able to find. So I suggested to the waiter that to compensate for the error on the menu that he open a bottle of that for me, and promised to have at least two glasses. And like a five-star restaurant should, he opened me my own bottle to drink by the glass. The funny part was that I probably could have gotten it by the bottle since I ended up ordering three glasses of it and still wanted more. To make things better, he even gave them to me for the lesser price of the original glass, which was truly a steal. But that’s not the point. The point is: Scoop this one up, (if you can find it) because it’s pretty amazing for the price.

SCHILD BAROSSA VALLEY SHIRAZ 2005, 93 POINTS, $25, 10,000 cases made
Subtle aromas of licorice, chocolate, cocoa powder and violet. Soft, seamless mouthfeel of perfumey black fruit evolves into a blast of chocolate, pepper spice and light leather components. Incredibly long finish, dominated by blasts of cocoa and light pepper spice, impeccably balanced.

This entry was posted on November 20, 2007 at 3:25 am and is filed under Vino. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.