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Last week we tasted Shiraz over £7 at which price you expect something a little better. You expect to sit up and notice some complexity, some beauty. Shiraz under £7 isn’t expected to have that extra dimension. We expect baked fruit, rubber, black pepper and in Australia perhaps a hint of blueberry, but complexity is rarely on the list.
Our favourite wine wasn’t the best Shiraz I’ve ever tasted and I wouldn’t go crazy about it, but I did go out the next day and buy quite a few bottles because it’s better than expected and was reduced by £1.50. Sadly, the offer will be over by the time you read this. Palandri Pinnacle Shiraz has good presentation, being slick, shiny and black and is normally £5.99 from Waitrose and Somerfield. The smell makes you sit up and take notice because along with the usual baked dark fruits, is something fresher and greener, like green peppers, and also fresh new oak. The taste has some coffee on it and is also herbal. It has great body, sweet fruit, but a dry finish. We loved it.
Second best was Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Shiraz 2004, which is £4.99 at the Co-op and Sainsbury’s and is regularly reduced. It didn’t have a great deal of aroma, but was tasted straight after the Palandri and so may have suffered from us having dazed noses. It had a perfectly good taste, but lacked that punch to the senses that we got from the preceding wine. It’s quite a lot cheaper and a reasonable example.
JJ McWilliams Shiraz/Merlot is £4.99 from Somerfield. It smelt, typically, of brambles and baked fruits and was sweet and brambly in the mouth. Lorraine said it was treacly and edging to burnt, which is to be expected.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Barossa Shiraz 2003 was disappointing at £6.99. Its sister wine, the Coonawarra Cabernet has, for some time, been performing above its price. It is reliably and noticeably a minty and delicious Aussie Cab. The Barossa Shiraz fails to be great. The aroma is reasonable, but in the mouth it lacks the ripe fruit that Shiraz drinkers want. It has an almost Marmite-like savoury flavour.
It was only marginally better than the Co-op’s Jacaranda Shiraz 2005, which is £3.99 and was our least favourite. Right from the first sniff, this wine yelled that it was cheap. It had a dull smell which hinted at very young fruit, without showing any lift of youth. Lorraine caught a whiff of green peppers. It was dry in the mouth with little to taste except its 14.5% alcohol which was furiously out of balance with the insipid flavour. The Pinnacle, with 14% alcohol had the body and intensity of flavour to coat the spirit and so feel balanced in the mouth. Jacaranda was lightweight and fiery. Hopeless.
Palandri Pinnacle 2003 – Waitrose, Somerfield - £5.99
Wolf Blass Eaglehawk 2004, Sainsbury, Co-op - £4.99
J J McWilliams Shiraz/Merlot 2005 – Somerfield - £4.99