2009 Mollydooker Shiraz Velvet Glove

The estate’s top Shiraz, the 2009 Mollydooker Shiraz Velvet Glove is a gorgeous bottle of wine! 100% McLaren Value Shiraz, aged in 97% new American oak, the wine exudes class and charm with decadent blackberry and cherry fruits, chocolate ganache, vanilla, meat juice, and coffee bean like aromas and flavors. Despite the overall size here, this stays beautifully focused and fresh, showing not only solid purity of fruit, but also a layered, already complex profile. Full bodied, well defined, and clean on the palate, with the expected mouth-coating richness, but also fine-grained tannin structure and real density and depth to the mid-palate, this stunning wine should improve over the coming 1-3 years, and have a solid 10-15 year drink window. Superb stuff!

There were 250 cases bottled of the 2009 Velvet Glove Shiraz, a year that Sparky Marquis remembers as being, "A good year. Low yields, a long, cool season that was bad for sunbathers but good for grapes." The wine is still holding up, boasting notes of mint, raspberries, blackberries and chocolate. It's full-bodied, velvety and long, but I'd drink up soon. Sep 2018, www.robertparker.com