2012 Wirra Wirra Cabernet Sauvignon Dead Ringer McLaren Vale
Wanted a full-bodied rich red for a before-dinner drink on a sunny but cool autumnal evening, so pulled this. Perfect! The brambly-berry sweet spice/bark on the nose was hypnotically attractive but so delightfully different than what we normally experience from our usual haunts of Washington, California and France that had we not known we were drinking a straight cab it would not have been our first guess. Hefty black currant and boysenberry fruit with hints of mint and that bark thing along with that tell-tale sour cream lactic note so typical of McClaren Vale wines manage to find that sweet spot between rowdy and elegant that Aussie wines do so well. Excellent.
And a side note: Where I've always prized wine's ability to evoke memories of a place, confinement has made it seriously more meaningful to 'travel' thru our wine collection. We visited the McClaren Vale in October 2000, and though nominally familiar with many of the great names there (like D'Arenberg, Kay/Amery, Fox Creek), we found a new area favorite in Wirra Wirra, tasting in an old barn with the winemaker who had just been named King of whatever annual festival it is they have there. I had never seen their wines in the U.S. before last year when I snagged this one. Now I wish I'd bought more. Last night it was just the 'trip' we needed.