8 December 2009
A Blast From the Past
I nearly labelled this Where are the labels of yesteryear? but second thoughts prevailed. After all, there are plenty of labels dating back to the days when I first started getting interested in wine that nobody's going to be shedding tears over. Ben Ean Moselle, anyone?
There are also plenty of labels that disappeared as the result of corporate mergers and makeovers, which is a subject that's been known to provoke strong feelings and raised hackles. The Rothbury Estate, for example.
No, what we're looking at here is a chance, thanks to The Wine Society, to run right back to some time around 1975 when I first encountered this wine from Wynns with the distinctive red stripe.
If I recall correctly it was a school staff function at the Stuart Hotel in Townsville and I wanted a red wine to wash down a big hairy steak. I knew the distinctive Wynns label, had tried the Cabernet and the Shiraz, which I suspect was labelled hermitage back at that stage, so why not?
Bearing in mind that my tasting career was more or less in its infancy, it probably comes as no surprise that this Cabernet Shiraz Merlot blend became the benchmark for quality wine as far as Hughesy was concerned.
And when the October magazine from The Wine Society arrived with the 2007 Cabernet Shiraz Merlot at $9.99 I was more or less obliged to outlay the readies, particularly since I also needed to invest in a dozen of the rather excellent Printhie 2006 Orange Chardonnay.
Those things also help to guarantee a further free freight year where The Wine Society is concerned.
$9.99 is a pretty remarkable price for a wine with this lineage, being about half the recommended retail, and represents another example of how the current glut is shaking out in the market place.
It's a fresh deep bright red in the glass with an attractive nose, but the fun really starts when the wine hits the palate. We're being pushed towards single varietals or single varietal dominant blends, but this is a timely reminder of the pleasures of a mix of varieties that complement each other.
The wine is remarkably soft and rounded and it'd be interesting to see how it shapes up over another couple of years, though my supply isn't going to last that long.
With rounded tannins, red and black berry flavours, subtle oak and a bit of mint lurking in the background it's a perfect 'drink now' style that'll be worth laying down for a year or two if you can keep your hands off it.
I won't be able to.
