2006 The Octavius Old Vines Shiraz

Inky violet color. Heady, exotic aromas of candied dark berries, cherry-vanilla, Indian spices and woodsmoke, with a sexy floral quality gaining strength with aeration. Broad, fleshy and impressively deep, offering sappy cassis, blueberry and violet pastille flavors. Turns spicier on the finish, which lingers with outstanding persistence. There's nothing to get in the way of drinking this now but it has the concentration to age. This comes in at 13.5% alcohol.

The 2006 Octavius Barossa Shiraz casts a very deep garnet-purple color and presents pronounced warm cherry and dried flower notes with some youthful crushed blackberries, earth, truffles, tree bark and Chinese five spice. Elegant, medium-bodied and crisp in the mouth, it gives firm fine tannins, great concentration and a very long finish. Drink it now to 2022+. Remaining one of Australia’s oldest, largest and most prestigious family owned companies, Yalumba’s top wines should not be overlooked amongst the limelight-hogging young-gun wines that have sprung-up around the Barossa in the last 20 years. Some of the region’s finest vineyards are owned or contracted by this company. They’ve also contributed considerably to the quality of vine material available throughout the region with the impressive developments at the Yalumba nursery. Regarding the current releases, The Signature and Octavius won’t be released in 2007. I was informed that in 2008 all their reds were picked before the first week of March but there were no single site wines made in 2008 because it was felt the fruit wasn’t expressing the sites. 2009 was a good year and everything will be released, though winemaker Louisa Rose confessed that their early maturing Shiraz suffered the most in the 2009 heat spike. Importer: Negociants USA, Napa, CA; tel. (707) 259-0993