O'Leary Walker 2002 Reserve Shiraz PlonkOz04

I first tried a barrel sample of this last May and I was extremely impressed with the wine so I was very anxious to try the finished product. There are not many wineries that can get away with charging around me $90 mark for a first release premium wine, but then there are not too many first release wines with the talent of O'Leary and Walker behind them. Deep fruit combine with balanced acid and fine grained, chewy, dusty, smooth tannins to form a full-bodied wine with a very tight structure showing some elegance and a diverse complexity. There is a chary lead in but the phenomenal fruit below will soak it up in time. Mulberry, blackcurrant, blackberry, and plum all flow across the palate in layers of sweet and off-sweet flavours finishing with terrific length. This was one wine I did not want to spit. It will need years to show its best and mine will not be pulled out of the cellar until 2010 were beyond. Rated as Excellent with *** for value. As a first release wine it is clearly worth the asking price.