Magpie Estate, Malcolm Shiraz

Magpie Estate, Malcolm ShirazThe 2006 Shiraz Malcolm was tasted from a barrel sample. The wine was sourced from a single, dry grown vineyard, with vine age ranging from 20 120 years. It was first barrel fermented and is now receiving the 200% new oak treatment, spending the first 12 months in new French oak before transfer to new American oak for another 12 months. It will be bottled unfined and unfiltered. Purple black colored, it has an ethereal bouquet of wood smoke, pencil

all wrapped in mouth coating finish

There is excellent freshness and vibrancy to the pure

liquid minerals and acacia blossom that continue onto the rich

but they are now all there front and center

I suspect that this will become more interesting with age but for now

cherry cordial and blackcurrant jelly notes with suggestions of Chinese five spice

earth and savory layers

This is certainly Gevrey in character but thanks to the relatively fine-grained tannins it avoids any sense of rusticity

which shows good delineation and harmonious tannins

-- Neal Martin

round and wonderfully seductive mediumbodied flavors that possess fine phenolic maturity to the fine but firm tannins that impart a dusty character to the wonderfully long finish

which allowed the Cabernet Franc to complete the final ripening phase in a uniform fashion