Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Old growth dry grown vines are where it’s at..

Baileys of Glenrowan 2008 1920s Block Shiraz

Baileys 2008 1920s Block

While I could've waited, my experience with the 2008 Glenrowan Shiraz meant, with three bottles of the 2008 1920s Block Shiraz in the mid-year 1870s Club pack along with a couple in the wine fridge from previous packs, that I yielded to temptation a tad earlier than might otherwise have been the case. I had a lump of big hairy mega-rump from the butcher on the corner and I was in the mood for a big hairy red to go with it. It didn't quite work out that way, but I figured with three in the pack we could crack anotherie when Madam returns from her overseas jaunt and stash the other one in the wine fridge with its brothers.

We're talking, after all, about a wine that should last well into the 2020s and there's no guarantee Hughesy will still be around to enjoy it when it really hits its straps.

I'm not a big fan of flowery descriptive terms when it comes to wine, but as I took my first whiff for some reason my mind went back to the dusty ancient leather-bound Encyclopaedia Britannicas that were shelved beside the fireplace in the landlady's half of the majestic old Queenslander where my family lived until we moved north in 1963.

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