St Hallett Old Block Shiraz

Three of us visited Craig's place last night. It was supposed to be night for board games, but since it had been a fair while since the last one, we had a bit of chat to get through. And the tour of his house. The tour ended with a visit to the wine fridge. Then we had to pore over the wine list and choose something.

Craig was fairly confident that the 1991 St Hallett Old Block shiraz (acquired at auction 6 years ago) would be past its best. That was just the excuse I needed to encourage him to choose it - no point waiting longer!

The cork was very soft, and less than half came out with the corkscrew. After some digging, the only option was to push the cork in, and to sieve and decant. The bottle was fairly free of lees, the wine was on the brickish side of red, and the scent was a cause for optimism. After decanting, we left it for about 30 mins.

The first tastes revealed a rather solid depth with central smoothness, although there were still some aromatics and a hint of acetic acid. But after it had warmed slightly in the glass, and perhaps with slightly recalibrated palates thanks to the Mersey Valley cheese, the tannic complexities began to reveal themselves, and worries about the wine being too old seemed to evaporate. No unripe peppery flavours here; it was just plums with a hint of barnyard. The only things I could have asked for more of would have been some touches of tobacco and a bit more length.

We concluded in the end that the wine may well have been better a few years ago, but it was definitely still on the delicious side of good last night.

Thanks Craig!