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2012 Mystery Icon Barossa Valley Shiraz
Recommendations
Crafted by Australian wine royalty, this wine is powerful yet balanced. With 98 points from a renowned wine critic this wine is normally $189 at the cellar door but as a special mystery wine it's much less than that...
Expert Reviews
The colour is still deep crimson-purple, setting the pattern for the bouquet and palate to follow. A wine of the highest quality in the Olympian class of Barossa Valley shiraz, seamless, calmly powerful and perfectly balanced. Black fruits dominate, but this is no one-dimensional power play, with hints of licorice, bitter chocolate and graphite. The tannins and oak contributions are perfectly placed and paced.'
Meaty and leathery, with polished dark berry/plum fruit and cedary oak. Rustic.'
Deep red/purple, youthful colour, and the bouquet screams coconut and vanilla toasted oak. The wine is full-bodied and very edgy, with bitter, aggressive oaky flavours predominating. A massive wine, outrageously oaky and demanding patience. I can't imagine wanting to drink this for another four years, minimum. In other words, not till it's at least 10 years old. But it has undoubted concentration and richness.'
Tech stuff
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How's it taste?
Picked from nearly 100 year old vines and matured for a massive 20 months in barrel, it's a seriously full bodied wine, yet the balance is the best we've seen in years. We think this will still be alive and kicking in 40 years time!
How was it made?
The fruit for this iconic wine is predominantly handpicked from near century old vines from the famed Barossa Valley. The 2012 vintage provided exceptional conditions throughout the entire growing season. Good winter rains laid the foundation for a perfect spring, with mild and dry weather along with cool nights throughout vintage producing perfect ripening conditions.
Winemaking with grapes from such old vines is kept very simple. After crushing, the grapes were inoculated with yeast and remained in the open fermenters for between 8 to 10 days under careful observation. The fermenters were gently pumped over 2-3 times a day to begin, with pump over times reduced as fermentation progressed to allow ideal extraction and maintain balance.
On completion of fermentation on skins, the wines were gently basket pressed and allowed to settle for 24 hours. The wines were then transferred into a combination of French and American oak for 20 months maturation prior to bottling.
Who made it?
Our Mystery Wineries are found right around the country, some of which you will know very well. Many of our Mystery Wines are already well known to wine buyers and sell for much higher prices under their own label. But winemakers need to eat, and when it comes time to find space for a new vintage, they naturally want to sell whatever they can quickly. Which is where we come in. What we do is agree to take a few cases of said wine in exchange for a better price (so we can sell it cheaper). The condition being that the wine can't be sold cheaper under it's original label, so they either come up with a new label just for us, or we agree not to advertise the original brand (hence the "Mystery"). The end result is the same wine, but at fantastic bargain prices! The ethos with these wines is simple: - The original wine must always be a bottled and labeled product (we'll never sell cleanskins). - Our Mystery Wines are all covered by our full money back guarantee, purely because we know the vino in the bottle is good quality. - We'll never sell below par, 'out of condition' wines. Ever. - The intention is for bargains. Same wine, hidden label, cheaper result.
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