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Pow, right out of the glass! Classic Aussie blockbuster shiraz aromas: slight mint/herbal, fleshy, juicy black plums and blackberries squeezed in your palm with the juice running down your forearm. Oh my.
5 starsListed on Australia’s prestigious Langton’s Classification in the ‘Excellent’ category, this delivers vintage after vintage and ages well. Aromas of smoke and berry fruit rip from this full-bodied, beautifully balanced red. It’s a hedonist’s delight with waves of rich and luscious flavours—sweet, ripe mulberry, juicy Bing cherry and nuances of earth and slate—washing endlessly over the palate and dry, lengthy aftertaste. There’s also oak and a solid tannin structure needing time to knit in.
An appealing soft generous wine of silky-smooth structure and supple, rich flavours. It's a lovely vibrant wine with a little savoury leathery character to it, overlayed with a decent dusty eathiness. The majority blend of cabernet and shiraz carries the wine but the softness of the merlot adds an important dimension. Excellent wine.
2009 Neil Ashmead Grand Tourer Shiraz
93 pointsLifted floral, spicy notes on the nose. It's a highly perfumed wine made from a 70-year-old biodynamic single vineyard on Cameron Ashmead's property. It's 100 per cent shiraz. Gets 11 months in all French oak and is left on lees in barrel. Has a soft, generous mouth-feel with fine tannins and fine-grained oak. It's a sleeker, sexier wine.2008 Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon
91 pointsThis is sourced from the Elderton property. It was picked just as the heat was beginning, so it wasn't impacted by the extreme heatwave of that year. This is a stylish, angular and quite linear cabernet. Has fine red berry potes over some light cedary oak. Well balanced and poised with the structure to evolve in the cellar. This is predominately American oak.
2008 Ashmead Cabernet SauvignonThe quality of this wine shone through in the mini-vertical tastings of the top labels. The ’01 was good, the ’02 and ’06 very good, the ’04 outstanding, the ’08 an eyelash behind the ’04. It has superb drive and intensity to the back palate, with a lingering finish and aftertaste, the tannins positively silky. It has developed exceptionally well since first tasted in January 2010.
2008 Ode to LorraineA blend of 55% cabernet sauvignon, 37% shiraz and 8% merlot, with open fermentation concluded in barrel. The colour is deep but clear, the bouquet and palate offering blackberry, blackcurrant and plum aromas and flavours. There is ample structure from the cabernet component, giving line, length and balance to a quality wine. The toasty oak is evident, but does not challenge the fruit. Mercifully, the shocking pink colour of prior vintage labels has (almost) disappeared.
2010 Eden Valley ShirazFrom the Craneford Vineyard purchased by Elderton in 2007. It has vivid colour, and a fragrant plum-and-blackberry bouquet. The medium-bodied palate has great purity coupled with excellent texture and overall mouthfeel, and a long, supple finish. The wine was pressed straight to older American oak puncheons, amplifying the texture but leaving no distracting vanilla oak footprints.
@miss_shiny Grand designs for delicious dinner tossed out the window. Elderton's 2008 #Cabernet is sustenance enough.
@artofandyellis Been meaning to crack this for a while now, perhaps tonight in honour of #CabernetDay #Barossa 1992 Elderton Cabernet: http://pic.twitter.com/GnLXXPZ *as a side note, this wine is infact the Jimmy Watson Trophy Winner from 1993!We now look forward to next year's Cabernet Day and what it may hold in store for us!
“Pale colour, bright; the bouquet is restrained showing pear, nectarine, citrus and a light touch of toasty oak; the palate is racy and lean in style, with a lingering grilled nut and toast conclusion.”
A limited number of tickets are still available to attend dinner celebrating 30 Vintages of Elderton Wines. Hosted by Gourmet Traveller WINE Editor Judy Sarris and wine writer Nick Ryan, enjoy a three-course meal matched with a past and present vintage of wine from Elderton Wines.
I would like to think that it is the dribble of Merlot in this Cab/Shiraz that gives it its peculiar appeal. Look past the label (and its endearing ugliness) and focus your powers of deduction on the magical fruit assemblage within. Some palates may find this wine too velvety and mouth-coating, however, I am a disciple. Elderton’s portfolio has never looked better and at the top of the tree 2006 and 2007 Command Shiraz are both my wishes, too.
There's no doubt Elderton has finessed its wines of late, but the vineyards are the same, so the seamless , mid-weight spice and meaty notes remain as true as ever. The fruit is lush and tender and the tannins seem more genial and flexible.
Our E-team are practising their skills ready for Elderton Strikes Back II, our Vintage Festival event being held on April 27 at Barossa Bowl. It boasts an evening of shattering pine, fine wine and some marvellous swine with fun and hilarity also sure to be prominent features. Do you think the scarecrows are in with a chance for the trophy for best team score? For further information on the event, contact elderton@eldertonwines.com.au or 08 8568 7878.
