I'd been hoping for a fridge friendly red and was disappointed with my first try, straight out of the chilling device. Given half an hour to crawl back towards room temperature it might’ve been a different story, but subsequent tastings sans refrigeration were more than satisfactory, so further experimentation along those lines has gone on the back burner. Having failed to finish his Alicante, MacScoffenheimer declined a sample, but everybody else enjoyed it, proving, IMHO, that Rockford's on a winner with this particular style. While it's not as indispensable as the Alicante Bouchet and the White Frontignac there's every chance visitors will find a bottle or two in the wine rack, since it gives me a chance to fill in a second dozen in a Rockford reorder, which is basically what I'd done this time around. One case of the two staples (half and half), one case half Frugal Farmer with two bottles of each of the full-bodied red styles.
Having bought these as winter reds to be consumed with hearty fare on a cool night, Madam's impending departure for a month in Japan meant I needed to sample them before she left. In any case, I couldn't wait. Bearing in mind that these are traditional Barossa red styles they're also going to handle years of bottle aging, but with the wine fridge full, it'll be a case of try a couple each year when they're relatively young. We started with the 2005 Moppa Springs Grenache Mataro Shiraz ($23.50), working on the principle that savoury Italian-style meatballs in a tomato sauce suggested something at the earthy Grenache end of the spectrum, and very impressive it was. A five-year-old red with plenty of body, some spicy characters and plenty of earth, it was a highly enjoyable match to the food, and here's no way I'll be able to get away with sampling bottle #2 on my own.

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