Orlando 2002 Gramp’s Shiraz Feb 05

If ever I have come across the Jekyll and Hyde wine, this is it. Initially, this wine opened up with a pine scented nose, but after some time in the glass is this dissipated leaving noticeable VA, medium intensity dark berry fruit and milk chocolate. At that early stage, (the wine had been open about two hours) whilst the pine may have worn off from the bouquet, it is certainly not worn off from the palette which showed mulberry and chocolate fruit which was overshadowed by an almost green like bean character. It was not a good look and I had written the wine off.

Whilst I was having dinner, I looked at the label on the bottle and saw that it had won six gold medals, two of which were from respectable shows. Had I got it wrong, or was it a bad bottle? Luckily, Orlando had sent me two, so I opened up the second. It was pretty similar to the first but I left it on the table for a couple of hours to breathe.

Five hours after the first bottle had been opened, I retried it. Now I could see the medals were no fluke. Coffee oak, multiple dark berry fruit flavours and milk chocolate certainly grab your attention and finished with long, drying, slightly chalky tannins. Ample-weight, the wine is well-balanced and certainly most enjoyable. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, make sure you decanted it well in advance.