Shinas Estates The Guilty: A Shiraz

After a wonderful tasting at Wine Sense I have returned with a bottle of Shiraz that was featured at said tasting!  This wine by maker Shinas Estate.   They only have three wines, The Guilty, The Innocent, and The Verdict.  Today the wine on the chopping block is THE GUILTY!

Cost: 18.99 Regularly - 16.99 Purchased during tasting.

Alcohol Content: 14.9% its a heavy hitter.

Appearance: A deep burgundy with slow drooping legs.

The Nose:  This wine has some great smells once I got it home and got it in to one of my glasses.  There was a little bit of dried leaves, also there was some toasty hints that came with a second good swirl.  The and hidden down there at the bottem was some black cherry and just a touch of nail polish (I think its from the high alcohol content.)

The Taste:  I loved this wine for the reason that the Aussies tend to have really spicy Shiraz and it can get out of hand in a hurry and this wine was light on the spice and big on the subtle flavors.  This wine had some bolder fruitiness to it which helped to balance out the spice that came towards the end of the drink.  Also this wine had some light tannins that resulted in the drying of the mouth.   Finally on taste there was some small hints of olives.

Rating: I give this Shiraz a 6/7 because I didn't expect this complicated of a taste from and Australian wine.

Final Comments:  When I heard this was a Australian Shiraz I was afraid of the over spicy flavor that comes with a lot of the wine that bears that name.  I was pleasantly surprised at the subtlety this wine brings to the table. I enjoyed this wine with a night tangy pork skewer and some buttered bread that played nicely with the little spice and tangy flavors in the wine.  All and all I was very impressed with this wine. 

10/8/10 WineSense Tasting!

The Wines we got a chance to sample tonight at the Wine Sense were three wines from the same winery of Shinas Estate.  Sadly they have poor little cups to drink from the its hard to get a good sense of the smell out of them. But regardless on to the wines!!!

The Innocent is a Viognier wine that was soft on the nose with slight grassy hints as well as some fruitiness.  The taste was equally as delicate and filled with fruity flavors and light acidity.  It was an easy wine to enjoy.

The second wine we tried was the The Verdict.  It was a Cabernet Sauvignon that I also found to be enjoyable.  The nose was light and a little spicy.  The taste was also light on the tongue and didn't leave much after taste.  It had some light tannins in the back end that lingered a little.  All and all it was an enjoyable drink.

Finaly we were on to The Guilty!  Which is made from the Shiraz grape, which is also the most prevalent grape of Australia, and was the wine that we decided to go home with! The nose had some roasted nuts and a little bit of spice to it very pleasant.   The taste was slightly spicy with a little bit of olives.  This was a very good wine from down under and I will be doing a full review of it in my next post!

So I hope you enjoyed this quick run down of the tasting I went to at Wine Sense.   Remember they have tastings every Friday from 5-7 and they do 10% off the wines they are serving!