Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Shingleback Winery 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia)

This was one of those boxed wines that I have 32 of kicking about. Now before you think 'what kind of Tetra-Pak fetish does this guy have' let me say that it's not that kind of boxed wine. When I say "boxed wine" I am referring to wines that I have laid down for a few years - I fill up a box of 12 with some wines I want to watch age (twelve of them to be exact) and in a few years, at a designated time I open the box and pull out the bottles one at a time (over the course of a month or so) and try them; this was one of those boxed wines. I put this box away back in May of 2006, by then this wine was already 4 years past vintage date, add another two and a half years and now let's see what happens. The cork had a deep purple stain to it and has held it's seal beautifully because the wine had only crept up about a centimeter. The nose was very peppery with dried black fruit, and chocolate liqueur ... the taste was big on spice, blackberry, dark chocolate, cassis and dried fruit. The alcohol is pretty heady at 14.5%, tannins are silky and as it remained open the taste became slightly liqueur-like with some Port-like nuances. Still very nice, but not long for this world - I would say another couple of years.

No comments: