I came across this wine whilst on a hunt for a cheap Shiraz some 7 months ago whilst out shopping with my girlfriend. As I'm sure you've all realised now, I'm a huge fan of the reds, whilst (unbeknown to you), my girlfriend favours the whites. We stumbled upon this; a Chilean from the Vina Maipo vineyards, south of Santiago. This is the Shiraz, but depending on where you are from will be labelled Shiraz or Syrah. Their website www.vinamaipo.com lists their entire stock availability. But for today, here's looking at the Gran Reserva.
As I've tried to tunnel away from my forever spiralling lust lust for Australian Shiraz (It's a real bummer, *hic*), this particular wine opened my eyes and made me far more interested in the geographic implications imposed upon grapes, where they thrive and generally what climates make grapes taste how they do. This Shiraz is really well balanced. It's a nice, smooth tipple with a very mature consistency. Normally I'm used to a snifter that punches me square in the mush with it's pluckiness or a wine which will tease on the fruits and blast with a long alcoholic sting and out-stay its welcome. This however: very nice. As far as food goes; this one has done the rounds over the months. I remember a fantastic lamb shank with dauphinoise potatoes and asparagus being made even more tremendous with a glass of this. As I remember, it was remarkable orange and duck pate. But culinary preference aside, this is just a remarkable wine.
8/10 - I'm a big fan of this particular wine; but must ease up off the marking until I can sample other wines from Vino Maipo
0 comments:
Post a Comment