The Auswine Forum

I bought a couple of bottles of this Wyndham Estate 'Bin 555' Sparkling Shiraz(13.5%) from a clearnce shelf some time ago for about C$10 (same as Aussie). It is a non-vintage and is probably old stock since it has Gold and Trophy decals on the label from the 2006 Sydney Wine Show. In any case it has been loitering around the flat for over a year and in the fridge for almost six months, at least as long as the three months I was visiting Australia and the month and a half I have been home. I chose to drink this mid-week with some pepper steaks. I wasn't surprised that there was only a mild pop and sure enough it had lost most of it's fizz, there being hardly any mousse in the glass. Surprisingly the wine wasn't sweet at all, just a first flush of fruit followed by a dry, rather savoury finish. It got better as it warmed. There was even some sediment in our last glasses. I'm not at all displeased that I have another bottle.

It was only a day later, when I was in my cellar ferreting out a few bottles for the weekend, that in a box of sparkling wines, I noticed a Seaview Sparkling Shiraz-Cabernet. I knew I had an older bottle of sparkling shiraz and that I had bought it quite some time ago (not sure when) but did not recall that it was a shiraz-cabernet blend. More importantly I see that this is "bottle fermented" and that, together with the cabernet in the blend, makes me think this might turn into a really nice drop. Does Seaview still make this wine?

Cheers ................. Mahmoud.