WTN: 2004 Adelina Shiraz (Clare Valley)

[Jenise]

We've been testing our syrah palates this past week, and so we decided to sample this cellar orphan from Australia's Clare Valley. After the overoaked blueberry bomb from Sequel and the Northern Rhone wannabe from Doyenne, it unexpectedly provided a third entirely different and fascinating data point for new world syrah. On the nose, the 2004 Adelina offered black currant, blackberry, mint and earth. On the palate, more savory than sweet or at least pretty even with black fruit with dark chocolate-covered espresso beans, damp forest and dusty tannins. To my synaesthia-addled brain, where syrahs are always blue, red and purple, this one was black and green. Not underripe, though, the fruit's there, it's just admirably cool-climate in tone and structure. Drinks well now but has a good future ahead of it.

This is the style of Australian syrah that most Americans don't realize exists and that Mr. Parker doesn't want you to have. We loved it, and are so so sorry that we don't have additional bottles.

[Salil]

By coincidence, I just served that to my blind tasting group a couple of weeks ago.

I liked it a lot - pretty much what you describe, though I'm leaving my other bottle alone for a few years.

[Jenise]

How did your group do at their guesswork? I think it'd be a tough one to get blind, and if I had another I'd be saving it for a blind occasion too as it seems a perfect stump-the-chump bottle. Not at all textbook, yet a very good drink.

[David M. Bueker]

I actually found it rather heavy/pruney when I tasted it blind. Also picked up some back end heat.

[Jenise]

I actually found it rather heavy/pruney when I tasted it blind. Also picked up some back end heat.

Really! How different that seems from our bottle--I detest pruney flavors and am pretty sensitive to that when present. In fact, when Bob and I were discussing it and I cited black currant, he admitted to not really understanding--in the Biblical sense--what that tastes like. Never ate a black currant in his life. I said "it's like Dr. Pepper but without the prunes".

[Jenise]

Btw, just saw this other note from Salil's tasting: "Ripe plums, prunes, creosote and spice. Big and porty." Can't explain it, but no relation whatsover to what we tasted.

[Mike Pollard]

I've not had the Adelina but I'm not surprised by the differences in tasting notes - just look at the different descriptions on the '04 Shiraz on Cellar Tracker. Vive la différence between palates!

Sort of like rotundone, the pepper note in Shiraz. Most folks are very sensitive to it but about 20% are insensitive even at the highest levels.

Mike

[Jenise]

I've not had the Adelina but I'm not surprised by the differences in tasting notes - just look at the different descriptions on the '04 Shiraz on Cellar Tracker. Vive la différence between palates!

Sort of like rotundone, the pepper note in Shiraz. Most folks are very sensitive to it but about 20% are insensitive even at the highest levels.

Mike

Mike, I'm a very experienced taster and so are David and Salil, and my tastes are pretty well aligned with both of theirs. I despise overripeness and am very sensitive to anything even remotely oxidative. And look at my other descriptors: mint, forest, green, cool climate. The difference here has to be the bottles, not the tasters--though I agree it doesn't sound like they came from the same planet, let alone the same winery & vintage. After reading their notes, I found myself wondering if Salil's bottle had heat damage.

[Salil]

Actually, my bottle suffered really badly from placement.

I think if it had been poured 'normally', it may have been appreciated a lot better. (Though a couple of others at the table who enjoy bigger/richer wines loved it.)

Unfortunately for that Adelina, it was grabbed and poured a short while after a stunningly good 1966 Giscours. Very, very tough act for anything to follow, least of all an Aussie wine with plenty of exuberant fruit and structure.

[Mike Pollard]

Mike, I'm a very experienced taster and so are David and Salil, and my tastes are pretty well aligned with both of theirs. I despise overripeness and am very sensitive to anything even remotely oxidative. And look at my other descriptors: mint, forest, green, cool climate. The difference here has to be the bottles, not the tasters--though I agree it doesn't sound like they came from the same planet, let alone the same winery & vintage. After reading their notes, I found myself wondering if Salil's bottle had heat damage.

Jenise,

I'm not questioning anyone's ability to describe what they taste, just pointing out that we are not all equal in the biology necessary to taste the same aromas. The ability to smell rotundone is a wonderful example of that. Couple the difference in biology to bottle variation, placement in a tasting, etc, etc and I just not surprised that a group of experienced tasters will describe an individual wine in a variety of ways.

Mike