Grampians 14.0% Diam $40 Source: Sample
As the name suggests, the grapes for this are sourced from the Westgate Vineyard, planted in 1969. 100% whole bunch, wild ferment, sur lees for 10 months, unfined and unfiltered. It’s a take no prisoners wine. Mills pushes the boundaries here and I suspect the wine will not be to everyone’s tastes, but it suited me down to the ground.
Smoke, pan fried pork and fennel sausages, cedar, rose water, tea, raspberry and plum; an intoxicating nose indeed. The entry is rich and creamy but the mid-palate gets meaty with stemmy/stalky tannins drawing the flavours tight pretty quickly. I think it’s texturally brilliant if not entirely ‘friendly’.
There’s a firm spine of acid too. It’s actually a very structural wine…not so much about fruit, more about perfume, texture, savouriness and intrigue. On exit there is a little charcoal and some regional pepper.
A very different wine than the 09 Garden Gully, certainly at its best with appropriate food. Cerebral stuff and it’s exciting to see this sort of style coming out of Australia.
Winery website- http://www.jamsheed.com.au/
Nice post. Is it distinctly a grampians shiraz, or does it differentiate itself from other grampians shiraz (or potentially both!)
Both
Still Grampians, just a radical interpretation of the text/vineyard.
Interesting!
Tried The Story Wines 09 Westgate at a tasting a few weeks ago and have been hanging out for its release ever since. It was one of my favorite wines of the tasting. Now we have the Jamsheed as well and it sounds the goods. But different! Might have to try these wines together at some stage.
I was thinking the same thing David