Wine Review

Reviewer: Mike Gadd, Wino's

For a change I’m not reviewing a Margaret River wine this week.

The winery itself is based in Margaret River, but they source some of their fruit from other regions. In this particular case, shiraz from Frankland River.

This is no bad thing by the way, and many local wineries source fruit from other regions.

Howard Park being an example of one that tries to use the best character from each region in the wines that it makes.

As punters we are assured of the providence of wines like these (for example, no switcheroo with Margaret River grown fruit) via the Label Integrity Laws which essentially states whatever is in the bottle, has to be stated on the label.

Also it’s good to look at wines from outside this region as we can get a little myopic sometimes about the quality of what Margaret River can produce.

In the winemaking world we call this a “Cellar Palate”.

This is when someone tends to only like wines that look like the ones you taste every day in your own winery.

So to look at the Frankland shiraz from 3 Oceans is actually quite refreshing.

The wine is straight up easy going and affable in character. It’s like smelling a bag of old school lollies with berry jubes, boiled sweets, allsorts with some fruit mince spice to top it off.

The palate is also generous with the same mixed lolly characters with blackberry tart, a pinch of cocoa, and some nutmegy wood spice on the finish.

Overall not a bad drop for shiraz and one I would definitely consider having a glass of on the deck, watching the sun go down during these cooler spring evenings.

Win a bottle of Vita Novus shiraz

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