TV: Wild Duck Creek 2002 & 2004 Springflat Shiraz

[michaelw]

We had a rare grown-ups night last Sunday where we invited to dinner by another grown-up couple! The kids got to stay at home with Nanna and Grandad while we got to indulge in great food and wine.

Anyway, to the wines.

2002 WDC Springflat Shiraz: While this is a 7 year old wine it was still exhibiting many signs of immaturity. The tannins were still very grippy and the fruit, while on display, was a little overpowered on the palate. On the nose this wine was a knockout. The wine was a pleasure to drink, but I'm sure it would be more pleasurable in 10 years. This wine was sealed under cork and was A-OK!

2004 WDC Springflat Shiraz: With the older brother being a little overpowering, this younger wine was very similar in style and you could see the tannins here even more pronounced. This wine was under screwcap, so with regards to ageing, it will be interesting to see how these age. A great young wine, but once again it will only get better and I'm glad to have a few more.

As many have mentioned before about WDC wines, they are big fruit bombs and run the risk of being unbalanced with the often high alcohol content they run with. I must say that these wines were 15 and 15.5% (from memory) yet they were not overpowering in that sense and nor was there any sense of burning.

And they were a great accompaniment to the beef wellington!

[bacchaebabe]

Thanks for that. I've got both those wines have just packed an 00 Alans Cab to take away for the weekend so will report back next week.

[Michael McNally]

I took a '98 Springflat to an offline last year and I would have sworn it was not more than three or four years old. The primary fruit flavours were incredible for a 10-year-old. No problems with alcohol, and the tannins were present but not too grippy. Very fine wine.