Oz vs. California reds

[wondersofwine]

Well to show what a novice I am about Australian wines and cabernet offerings, I got my facts mixed up. The Henry's Drive I liked best was in fact an Australian cabernet sauvignon, not shiraz. The Kaseler which I had rated tied for second or a close third (maybe half a point behind the Silver Oaks)was a shiraz. So we had two Australian shiraz, an Australian c.s. and a Californian c.s. The Silver Oaks was '97 vintage. The Henry's Drive c.s. came out on top of the polling, but the Kaeseler (sp?) shiraz was the favorite with the wine shop staff. Using a 20 point scale I gave the Henry's Drive 18, the Kaeseler shiraz 16.5, the Silver Oaks c.s. 16.5 or 17 and the Mitolo shiraz 15. Maybe the tasters expect the Silver Oaks to improve with time (I thought it was quite good now although I liked the Henry's Drive better) or maybe they just buy for the name, but the Silver Oaks at $80 a bottle was the only wine from the tasting to sell out that day although the Henry's Drive favorite costs about $25 a bottle.

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 03-21-2002).]