Winter Creek 2003 Shiraz SAMay05

Winter Creek 2003 Shiraz SAMay05 sells for about $30-$32. The freshly opened bottle exhibited a touch of bottle stink but there was good fruit lurking below. The wine has damn good construction and balance, with smooth, ultra-fine natural tannins, no sign of oak; the sumptuous fruit is doing all the talking. Brooding chocolate, pepper and red plum flavours had excellent length and persistence and had no problems in cutting through strong cheese flavours that accompanied the wine. Medium-weight the structure shows elegance; the wine is already harmonious and should gain further complexity with time. A very smart wine, in fact one of the best 2003 I have tasted at this price point. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, it should peak around 2010. I have mine in the cellar already!