Pour Yourself A Glass

Lowe Reserve Shiraz 2006, Mudgee NSW



Pulled from an overnight holiday in the fridge



Interesting little wine this, and should develop over time.  It’s really the antithesis of the big aussie Shiraz that many may be familiar with, which is no bad thing.  In terms of the winemaking process, a third of the fruit was wild fermented; the rest was inoculated with a Rhone yeast and whole bunch fermented.  The wine was matured in both old and new French oak and is 100% organic.  Of course the main point here is how has this shaped the wine?  With some wines, for all the label babble you don’t really get much of it happening in the wine.  Happily this wine bucks that trend.

So a bit of a note…

Bright ruby red colour with a similarly bright nose, predominantly red fruit initially, then a hint of flowers and minerality, followed by a touch of violet and plum.  Palate has the red fruit along with some shiraz spice and funk, darker notes peek through temptingly.  Tannins provide shape and backbone, being firm but supple they finish this nicely.  Well structured.  90.

I tried this with food and then again the next day when I wrote an actual note about it.  Certainly this will age well and this would bring out further dimensions in the wine, perhaps along the” darker notes” which are hiding a little bit.  On opening it really is quite lean and bright, I‘d say you could mix this up with a Cotes du Rhone or similar GSM style wine if you tasted this blind.  The next day though the wine was overall darker and more “shiraz” if that makes sense; the floral had dissipated, more black fruit was present and there was more of a classic shiraz nose.  It suggests to me a wine which would really be great in five or even ten years.

***A little update, I left the wine in the fridge and tried it again 3-4 days after opening, only about a third left in the bottle.  Even better, and it made me think my 90 was stingy, seriously!  Thus I'm tempted to go 92+  Sometimes it's nice to be a little off the mark.  Comments are along the lines of the 2nd day tasting, things really opened up even more, multi dimensioned, depth and really integrated.

A high quality producer, well worth checking out so have a look Lowe Family Wine