AceHighWine

In a tasting last night where too many wines were overpriced and quite frankly overdone to the point of looking like caricatures of the big, bold, predominantly South Australian blockbuster style of red, this came up smelling like proverbial roses: though in reality, it was more like a hedonistic, heady flurry of white pepper and grilled meats. The effects of this wine (a blend of shiraz, grenache, mourvèdre and viognier) in the mouth were almost instantaneous - I sat up a little straighter and my chicken-scrawl handwriting jolted to life, trying desperately to keep up with the stream of superlatives being relayed synapse-to-synapse from my brain. Incredibly balanced and poised and defined by shades of pepper, meat and ripe plums whose purity, clarity and restraint shone like a beacon. Finishes clean and dry with a lingering trail of succulence. Fine, elegant and lengthy - one of the best Henry’s Sevens I’ve quaffed in recent memory. And finally, does anyone else think the name sounds like a championship winning rugby side? 18 www.henschke.com.au

While we’re in the Barossa, it would be remiss not to mention at least one shiraz from the region, particularly when it comes from the hand of former Grange winemaker John Duval. Now out on his own, one of the former custodians of Penfold’s flagship wine is applying his 30-odd years of winemaking experience to premium fruit sourced from the winemaking region he calls home.

The John Duval Entity Shiraz 2005 ($47) is a ball of generous Barossan character with buckets of ripe plum and chocolate flavours: the fruit and oak characteristics are at ease with one another - largely due, I imagine, to Duval’s decision to use French oak rather than the American barrels normally favoured in the region. The wine’s juicy, medium bodied texture is as much a part of the wine’s appeal as the judiciously managed and lingering flavours that impress without overwhelming. This is Barossan shiraz that’s been put through finishing school: classy and refined, but still true to its roots.

At the same tasting, I also had the pleasure of looking at the John Duval Plexus 2005 ($36): A blend of grenache, shiraz and mourvedre (usually shortened to GSM), it’s black fruit bouquet is similar to that of the Entity, but imagine the richness levels knocked up a notch. The wine’s flavours sit firmly in the black fruit spectrum and feel considerably thicker than the Entity. Again, oak input has been kept to a minimum but some telltale coffee flavours lurk on the finish. Flawlessly made using deliciously long fruit, this is a winner from go to “sh#t, who drank the last of the Plexus?”

Speaking of which, perceptive readers may have noticed that the bottle of Entity featuring in the photo above is conspicuosly much emptier than the two cabernets to its right. I’m sure you can guess why. www.johnduvalwines.com