The Auswine Forum

Surprisingly, I don't buy a lot of Barossa shiraz (I do buy a few), and I don't know how this landed in the cellar. A mixed box from an online retailer, perhaps?

Deep purple in colour, and quite bright in the glass (for a big red). The nose has fresh red plums, rich milk chocolate, a lashing of vanilla, and is quite big and bold. There's no doubting this is a warm climate shiraz.

The palate is also full, but not overpowering. The tannins are quite drying, but the fruit balances this out. There's a touch of the darker berries as well. The vanillan oak makes it's presence felt a little but overall the wine is not heavy-handed - the viscosity over the palate is not overly thick. The finish is long but relatively clean. It's not especially complex, but what it does, it does well.

Looking pretty good now, but I think it has another 5+ years ahead of it.

Cheers
Allan

Thanks for the notes. The Mamre Brook was originally a Shiraz/Cabernet blend before it was bottled as either a shiraz or cabernet. When I was in Australian I chose to buy and cellar the 1998 cabernet instead of the shiraz based on Jeremy Oliver giving the edge to the cabernet, though truth be told I would have preferred if the Mamre Brook was still a blend.

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