We all do it. We go away on holiday and take snapshots of places, buy souvenir items, keep road and city maps even if we are not compulsive collectors. What do we do with this stuff? I guess that most of it gets thrown away. A lot gets stuffed into boxes or at the back of bookshelves to be discovered later and reminisced on or, thrown away. The advantage of being unusually interested in wine is that when I travel I invariably bring back wines from the places I have visited. Having been in the industry for a long time has given me the advantage of selecting wines to bring home that I know will last and not buying that Est! Est! Est! or pleasant Cotes Du Rhone because it went so nice with yesterday's lunch or dinner.
Tonight, as we we were eating meat (lamb chops for her and scotch fillet for me) we opened a Shiraz. This was Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz 2003 from Margaret River in West Australia. We had a very nice holiday a few years ago, flying to Perth and staying in WA for a week before taking the train to Adelaide and spending another week and a half in South Australia. We visited a lot of good wineries and bought some of their best wines to bring home. Leeuwin Estate is a very impressive winery and visitor centre and well worth a visit for anyone interested in wine, food, architecture, art and generally the good things in life. We tasted some nice wines and selected the Shiraz to bring home.
What a lovely wine. This is another of those rich red wines that you just wish you had open or on hand when someone says 'Eee, I don't drink red wine, it is too dry for me and too bitter". This wine is beautifully structured. The colour is still deep red with some purple edges. The aroma has nice French oak with a rich plum and mulberry character and a pleasant peppery edge. The palate has a sweet and soft centre with the plum and mulberry (wild black fruits) flavour quite pronounced. It finishes sweet and pleasant with fine tannins.
This was a much better experience and reminder of a lovely holiday than looking at old photographs or restaurant menus.
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