TN: 1988 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz

markg · Post by **markg** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 5:22 pm

I got two of these as a bit of a perk of the job. Both capsules showed signs of leaking and the levels were just out of the neck.

The first one opened showed signs of either being corked or having some bacterial fault. I was very doubtful that it was due to oxidisation, there was still fruit, acid and tannins but an unpleasant medicinal taste on the palate.

The second was just great. After the bottle stink blew off I decanted it but couldn't resist a glass immediately. The color was still quite dark with a ruby rim, a lovely mouthfeel and weight with primarily a savoury profile of gunsmoke and graphite, hints of chocolate, earth and pepper, a nice hit of alcohol and a wonderful long finish, I beleive it still has quite a few more years left in it. Suprisingly (as our tastes are usually in synch) my wife did not like this wine until she had some food with it.

After about an hour it was definately starting to improve with more complexity and then it was all gone, hmmmm !!

Mike Hawkins · Post by **Mike Hawkins** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:40 am

I've had two of these in the past three months, and both were excellent. I was concerned they may have begun drying out, but that wasn't the case.

I agree with you Mark, that if well cellared, they'll have a few more years yet before they begin to decline. I'm keeping the rest of mine to have every six months.