Clarendon Hills Syrah 2005 Moritz (Australia)

FOREWORD
I promised a certain Australian sweetheart that I'd begin my journal with an entry about an Aussie wine and I am above all my flaws, a man of my word!

 -J



Hello friends.

Starting this bitch finally.


Clarendon Hills Syrah (notice the spelling, Clarendon avoids the Shiraz nomenclature that is so regional to Australia). Priced kindly under a hundred USD, this heavyweight is nothing short of excellent. RP 96 points. Ha! just kidding. I will not subject any of you would-be-readers to the fucking point system, because to me it is all just some systematical fuckery that is poor in diversity and downright biased. Moving on. I was always intrigued by Clarendon Hills after reading so many great reviews of their releases. The wine is inky and dark in the glass, the nose is powerful, truffled, not for the faint of heart. Ripe fruit abounds, some crème de cassis and notes of rotisserie'd awesomeness. The mouth feel is pure fucking fireworks! Heavy, dominating and further highlights the fact that it might have been a sin to open such a cellar-worthy bottle so early, but I like to give in to sin (Because I like to practice what I preach ~ DM). The finish is spectacular, very velvet-like. It's easy for me to understand now how a bottle of Astralis (Clarendon's megastar) could fetch for such elevated kinds of currency. This is pure class, an elixir of the gods if allowed a little more time in the bottle to mature fully, although don't get me wrong, this is pretty amazing now. Another solid example of why I love Australia. Sure they churn out a gazillion hectoliters of decent supermarket-shelf wine (What's up, Chile?), but when they craft middle-to-top drawer bombshells like these, you know they are all business. IOW, when they put on their dancing shoes and hit the dance floor, other countries KNOW they must step the fuck back and RESPECT.

Thanks to Bordeaux Wine Facebook Page for my gift L'Atelier du Vin winekey (and cheese knife), I am going to use the fuck out of this opener, y'all.