From the Cellar

Tscharke 2006 Only Son (Australia)

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Category: Uncorked Tonight

(May 16, 2020) ... Only Son is a 75% Tempranillo / 25% Graciano, two Spanish grape varieties growing in the Barossa Valley, Australia. Tempranillo is pretty well known, you can find it in all kinds of Spanish wines around the country, but Graciano (?) I have had very few wines made with and even fewer with the grape all by itself. It's a low yield, late harvested, warm climate loving grape that get very little love - but it does explain why Australia would work with it. This 14 year old wine is nice and mature with a rich and velvety texture, sure there is a pruney note of age, but there is also some smoky, vanilla and cassis notes. It's a pretty nice wine still, but not one I would hold much longer - glad I drank it when I did.

Rivera 1999 Aglianico & Heritage Road 2001 Shiraz (Italy & Australia)

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Category: Uncorked Tonight

(May 3, 2020) ...

Rivera 1999 Aglianico Riserva Cappellaccio ... This Aglianico wine from the south of Italy has held up reasonably well for a wine now in its 21st year from vintage date. It starts off plummy / pruney with whiffs and hits of smoke, but as it opens there are also some really pleasant notes of vanilla, coffee bean and anise. The acidity is still holding this one together, but as it continues to open some tobacco leaf, herbal and spice take over - and then everything just kinda of disappears leaving just those notes behind.

Heritage Road 2001 Reserve Shiraz, Old Mundulla Vineyard ... a couple of years younger and from a totally different part of the world, not sure why I pulled these two out together, but this one fared a little better than the wine above, being that it showed plenty of plum, smoke and cocoa - this was quite an interesting revelation as I did not expect it to have held up that well.