Quite some time ago I came across reports of this wine that described it as "the poor man's Grange", "excellent", and "a bargain from down under".
Now, I've never tasted the Penfold's Grange, but I'm well aware of the accolades it receives - even from parker. So I put a couple of these away in my cellar for about 6 months until I could resist no longer.
She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I popped a cork on one the other eve, and let it stand for about 30 minutes. accompanying the wine were some simple hors douvres, just to keep the wine, and the wine tasters, honest. Lest you feel you've been misled into reading the rest of my ramblings, allow me to cut to the chase; we were underwhelmed by the wine. It managed an 84.5 on our household 'modified 100 point scale' - making it an "average to good" wine.
The color is a dark garnet. Dark to the point of being opaque, but not at all cloudy. No hints of any browning, good legs on the glass. The acid is in balance, and the wine is not overoaked; just a hint of oak on the nose - as I prefer. But both the nose and the palate lack. The nose, as I said, has some soft oak, hints of licorice, and just a trace of that 'winey' Cabernet aroma (again, which I prefer). Problem is, that's it - there just isn't enough nose. We suspected that maybe the wine hadn't been allowed to breathe long enough, so we replaced the cork in the bottle and tried another glass the next day at lunch. Slight improvement, but really the same result.
The palate is firm, with a medium finish. But again, both the palate and the nose lack any fruit character.
While the wine is respectable, we fail to find the superlatives that others have given the wine. Honeslty, we think the Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cab is a slightly more enjoyable wine, and a much better value.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Cheers,