'01 Possum's Vineyard McLaren Vale Shiraz

[newsguy]

($19.99; 14.5%) garnet in color, this offers a very good initial nose of dark berries (blue and black) with hints of vanilla, spice and that tell-tale mclaren vale note, which to me seems like brown sugar. very good, concentrated dark red fruit flavors. solid entry, starts expanding on the midpalate through the lengthy finish. after double decanting for 30 minutes, chocolate becomes very evident on the nose, and blueberries become more prominent on the palate, along with more chocolate. good fruit, decent acidity and minimal tannins. flavors develop quite nicely with more decanting time. i'd say this will be at its best in another couple years. very nice wine, but was easily surpassed by the '02 bottling (which i scored 90-93 pts. last fall). considering the price, i won't be buying more of the '01. 89 points.

[This message has been edited by newsguy (edited 05-31-2005).]