Variety:

Region:

Tasting Notes: Mocha & Coconut

Ripe blueberries, mixed with mocha and coconut aromas. The palate is velvety and solidly packed full of rich, liqueured cherries and black fruit lurking below and there are sweet mint flavours on the finish.

Background Information: Rutherglen is one of the oldest wine regions in Australia. The area was planted in the 1850s, fifteen odd years after the area was first settled and around the time gold was found and the fortune hunters descended in great numbers.

As a wine growing area Rutherglen was extremely important and staggeringly by 1890 it was producing a quarter of Australias wine. Unfortunately in the late 1890s the vine louse phylloxera spread through the entire North East Victoria attacking the roots of the vines and most vines had to be uprooted and burnt. Many vineyards had to close whilst the local Viticultural College helped some replant new rootlings from America which were phylloxera resistant stock.

The region flourished again around the 1950s when fortified wines ruled the roost. These were the days when big alcoholic fortified wines were drunk in favour of table wines and men were men. As with all things, consumer tastes and demands change and now for the wineries in Rutherglen their world famous fortified Muscats and Tokays are in less demand (domestically), however the quality is second to none.

Due to the fact that fortified wine is now not the Australian wine drinkers tipple of choice, the wineries of the region are now looking to their other great asset, hearty red wines. Predominantly from Shiraz and Durif, and hey we are talking about Rutherglen so they are ripe. These are not wines that can be referred to as Rhone-like. They are rich, ripe with sweet oak and sometimes showing high alcohol levels.

This one is not over the top; sure it is ripe but definitely not over alcoholic and porty. It’s a really good example of a medium – full bodied Rutherglen red that still has an elegant edge.

Vintage: 2004

State: Victoria

Country: Australia

Alcohol Content: 14%

Standard Drinks: 8.3

Preservatives: 220

Bottle Top: Screw cap

Bottle Size: 750 ml

Red/White Wine: Red