WTN: Rolling the dice with a Wynn

Wynn's Coonawara Estate 2004 Coonawara (Australia) Shiraz. 13.5% ABV, $16.00 in 2007. Not at all our usual thing -- I think this was the only bottle of Australian red in our cellar. A cooler than usual vintage, supposedly, which is probably why I thought it might be fun to tuck a bottle of this away for a decade. At first, after a couple of small glasses of relatively austere Chablis, this was like an soft pine plank to the head, but with about 10 minutes in the glass, this got a lot more coherent, the explicit wood retreated, the spine re-appeared, and it turned into a decent drink. Still very fresh, round, rich blackberry and raspberry liqueur and black pepper, bitter chocolate on the finish. For a wine that isn't our preferred style, this really isn't bad, and I think the fact that it improved rather than collapsed in the glass speaks well of it. It would be a crowd-pleaser with a dark, wintry stew.

I've had good past experiences with Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon (not sure I've had their Shiraz.) The Wynns Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon was a ridiculously good bargain about ten years ago. The Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon John Riddoch was a more expensive reserve cabernet that was not produced every year and could be outstanding. For several years (after the Australian wine industry encountered some problems) Wynns did not have a distributor in the USA or was not widely distributed, but I see that the Black Label is available again starting with the 2010 vintage and some stores have the John Riddoch. (Raeder's in Albertson, NY listed a bottle of John Riddoch without providing the vintage and ascribed it to Germany!)

Thanks, JC -- in fact, I see my local Beverage Superstore carries the Black Label Cab for $40. At that price, I'm not likely to bite, unless I develop a sudden interest in exploring a region I still don't really understand (which does happen to me every couple of years!)....