Shiraz is Happenin

It is a happenin’ wine varietal now and it has been for the last five years in the retail sector (it has won over many California Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot drinkers) and on fine wine lists nation wide. Shiraz is the most widely planted red grape in Australia and the selection offered to the world market has been growing over the last few years. Shiraz is a great wine grape. Get to know it if you enjoy red wine, and get used to talking about Australia when you are talking wine with your wine-appreciating friends. If you have any; wine drinking friends that is.

Shiraz is a nice blackberryish, plummy, full-to-medium bodied, peppery, dark purple mouth filling, intensely interesting red wine. It is age-worthy in many cases but mostly ready to drink on arrival. Shiraz gets a lot of coverage now and I think it will keep emerging as one of the main players fighting for shelf space in the next ten years.
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1996 Cote-Rotie, E.Guigal
Sure I should have waited five to ten more years to open this cellerable bottle of Northern Rhone super juice, but since it was a Tuesday, and there was an NBA game on, I decided that this special occasion warranted a special bottle. So, bye-bye cork and hello Syrah.

This is Marcel Guigal’s second release of this reserve Cote Rotie. This bottle of Château d’Ampuis fits into Guigals Cote Rotie portfolio above the standard Cote Rotie “Brune et Blonde”, and below (in price & demand) the three vineyard designate bottlings that run about $200 a pop. So this should be considered the reserve, and at $85 a bottle you might have to reach into your reserves to pick up a bottle. The fruit for this bottle is sourced form six different and distinct vineyards all from around the town of Ampuis and case production is around 2500.
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