A South Australian Shiraz

We were out last Friday night for a friend’s 30th, and as usual the wine list was passed down the table to me with the instruction to pick something good. I have to admit it was rather a good list which was making the decision all that more difficult, but while I was scanning down the reds I spotted a shiraz from Geoff Merrill, and I remembered tasting one at the imbibros tasting I'd been to recently, which I'd thought was absolutely stunning, so it seemed like a good bet to me.

The wine in question was their 2008 Pimpala Road Shiraz from South Australia, and unfortunately is only available to the UK through the on-trade. Which is always something that annoys me, why must I only be able to drink certain wines in a restaurant and not at home, but I think that’s a topic for discussion at a later date.

Getting back to the wine, it had a deep red/purple colour in the glass, with wonderfully pronounced aromas of blackcurrants and spice. On the palate you got the fruit of blackcurrants and red currants, with the spice coming through as liquorice and a touch of clove, which were far more predominant than the fruit flavours. There was a good level of acidity which just made your mouth water profusely, helping the flavours linger that little bit more, there was a very small amount of very fine tannins which surprisingly combined beautifully and resulted in an outstandingly well balanced wine.

Is this a wine that I’d recommend, if your out for dinner and your lucky enough to find it on the wine list, then it’s definitely worth giving serious consideration, again it’s only a pity you can’t get it to take home to enjoy, If you want to try one of their other wines, give their Jacko’s Blend 2006 from McLaren Vale a go, it was rather delicious.