d'Arenberg McLaren Vale The Footbolt Shiraz 2007

..... lots of oak and lots of ripe fruit and lots of alcohol and lots of ripe fruit and lots of South Australia. So, like my mum used to say, if you haven't got anything nice to say.....

Yet at this price, it serves a purpose.

Drink with a dirty great big piece of meat, with lots of blood!
Drink till 2011
80
Screwcap 14.5%v/v (!!!!) $14 Preston Dan Murphy's

Noon Winery McLaren Vale Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

They say ‘big is better’ and ‘nothing is bigger than Texas’ and then there is this one from the late US president Gerald Ford, ‘if the government is big enough to give you what you want, then it is big enough to take it away as well’. These all may be true, but the one thing I know that is big is the Noon McLaren Vale Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002. BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG!!!

You got that. Good!

Quite possibly the biggest alcohol I have ever seen for a table wine, this bad boy weighs in at a hefty 16.1% a/v. I could have easily have introduced this wine like some heavy weight prize fighting boxer about to step in to the ring, but that would just be too theatrical for cyberspace I reckon.

This wine has been sitting in my cellar for about 5 years now, so with a curious mind and thirsty gob, Erin and I got stuck in to this one like any other bottle of plonk – casually. What we got was a lesson about being cautious. Yes I know, too theatrical.

After sitting in the decanter for about 30 minutes, the wine had this appearance of being almost black, something I saw while at Charles Sturt Uni in Wagga; it was a class on pH (the measure of acidity or alkalinity of a solution) in red wine with lower pH of 3.2 – 3.8 being normal red wine colour, to the extreme of pH 6.1 being total black. Now the thing with pH is that the lower it is the more acid you will have and less alcohol with the opposite for those wines with high pH. Anyway, it is a fair bet that this wine had a high pH, not 8, but definitely somewhere around 3.9 - 4.0.

On the nose there is heavy eucalypt similar to that of ‘Martha Gardner’s’ wool wash. After this there is just a real big hit of ethanol, which is no surprise really. In the mouth liquorice in the way of sweet all sorts is overwhelming and seems to just go on for quite a while without much else happening.

This is a wine for all those wine drinkers who love that big smack of oak and alcohol, and with a couple bottles left in the cellar, it seems that this one will have to wait a little longer before it see’s the light of day, or the bottom of my glass.

To quote Bobo from ‘Pizza’, ‘It’s big and it’s cheesy’.

There is balance, there is length, but the wine just lacks complexity and elegance.

Drink till 2020
Drink with leg of lamb and mint sauce
16/20

Competition Time!! ... and Some Young Punks 'The Squid's Fist' Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale 2008 Sangiovese Shiraz

How would you fancy a glass of ‘Raging Aardvarks’ Chardonnay, or ‘Exploding Toxic Haemorrhoids’ Sauvignon Blanc? Fortunately you won’t have to because these wines are just figments of my imagination. Yet even though these wine names are a bit strange, it is becoming more and more popular these days to brand your wine with a funky moniker just to get the punters attention owing to the fact that there are more wines on shelves than NRL player misdemeanours.

I did a search last nite on the W’s and came across some whacky names; ‘Fat Bastard’ Chardonnay, ‘Marilyn Merlot’, ‘ChardonnAlien’, ‘Goats do Roam’ and ‘Goats Roti’. Most are plays on words with the rest just being plain weird. But this is where it is all heading with a lot of these labels being produced and run by that most imaginative of generations, ‘Gen Y’.

So I have come up with the idea of holding a competition to all comers to come up with the wackiest printable wine name, be it label or company. And what gave me this idea; ‘Some Young Punks’ from South Australia.

Friends Colin McBryde, Jennie Gardner and Nic Bourke first produced their range with the 2005 ‘Passion had Red Lips’ and ‘Naked on Rollerskates’ range to make ‘rockin’ wine with an edgy wow factor. The concept of the pulp fiction artwork may be a bit tongue in cheek, but it is the wine behind the gloss that really socks it to ya!

My favourite of theirs is ‘The Squid's Fist’ 2008 Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale Sangiovese/Shiraz. The colour has a deep red garnet with a slight purple hue. The nose has mocha, with an almost stoutish feel to it. It is all ripe juicy fruit in the mouth with cherries, raspberries and plums all working together with fine tannins and soft acid.

It is a wacky wine, but it is also a great wine with even balance, good length and not to Barossa big even with the 14.4% a/v. Good stuff this one!

So get cracking. Come up with your best name for plonk. Prize to be announced soon, so stay tuned!!

Drink till 2012
Drink with a burger with the lot
16.8/20