In a nice nod to sub-regionality, the back label identifies this wine's fruit as having been sourced from Armagh and Polish Hill River. Work was a slog today, so much so that I just had to swing by the local Dan's Choice and pick up a bottle of something I haven't tried before. Usually, my wine purchases are a lot more deliberate. The obsessive side of my personality, if I can be so euphemistic as to call my defining characteristic a "side," usually demands my choice of beverage be the result of some consideration. But I just grabbed this at the shop without much thought. And here we are.
I guess I should rely on chance more often. This is a really honest wine, well-made and flavoursome. Swirly, rather high toned aromas of spice and mint encircle dust and moderately well-defined Cabernet fruit. We're a long way from Coonawarra or Bordeaux with this wine, but that's alright because it's a comfortable, even slightly plush place. The aroma profile seems warmer, somehow, cuddlier than more restrained Cabernet styles, even as it challenges with a bit of savoury tar, cooked meat and slightly sharp oak.
Nice slippery entry, cool and composed as it lodges a wedge into the mouth, only to subtly pry it open. Indeed, it's not a wine of enormous impact. Not because there isn't good intensity (there is) or adequate structure (acid and tannin are quite prominent), rather there's such balance and harmony, it just feels right in the mouth, no one area sticking out and demanding attention. Pretty focused through the middle palate, this wine narrows through the back of the mouth, tannins closing in on a gradually diminishing volume of clean berry flavour until a finish of vanilla oak, tannins and leafiness slowly descends on this elegantly dimmed stage. A little harshness here detracts, the wine becoming too thin too quickly to sustain satisfaction along its entire line.
This wine is brilliantly drinkable and quite magnetic in its unassuming way.
Good value too. The O'Leary Walker wines deserve more attention (or at least I think so).
Its been awhile since I ventured here. 2004 Cab Sav and Shiraz, 2007 Polish and Watervale reisling in point of fact. All very, very good wines and I agree with Andrew that they deserve more attention, but that begs the question why I haven't parted with a $20 note to catch up with them. Good reason to do so now I guess. Cheers.