Warrenmang Estate Shiraz 1996

To celebrate a friend's good fortune, I thought a toast was in order. I thought about bubbly.. I thought about pinot noir, afterall, Central Otago is just around the corner. And then I thought about Shiraz from her home turf.

Victoria.

Although I've had some cracker wines from around that state, Victorian Shiraz hasn't historically been my favourite. Having cut my teeth on South Australian Shiraz, it's not something I can help. I may be biased but I'll admit it.

But this. While it may well have been able to handle another 2-3 years, there was still nothing premature about opening it tonight. At the ripe old age of 11, it has had a great sleep in the cellar and was due for a taste.

This was still a deep brilliant inky jewel of a wine and the nose was all about the time in the bottle, bordering on ethereal and maybe a faint eucalypt note.. It had all the sensual dried dark berry and pepper spice you could handle dressed in the complexity of bottle age like a fine merino suit. We decanted it to give this well attired wine a comfortable chair before dinner.

And in the glass, more of the same. Opulence deluxe.