1996 Shiraz  ( 2 Bottles only )

Comments:
Good Australian Shiraz is becoming recognised world over, and at Vasse Felix we have founded a reputation for Shiraz on our 30 year old vineyard. Such is the faith we have in this variety we have planted half of our new vineyard to Shiraz and grafted some more Cabernet vines over to Shiraz. The original vines are now producing very intense cherry, spicy wines rich in flavour.

Vasse Felix Shiraz is gently extracted and barrel fermented in 100% new American and French oak barriques and matured for a further 15 months.

Vasse Felix Shiraz has now an unbroken record of trophies for every vintage of Shiraz going back to 1987 in the national wine shows.

Tasting:
The 1996 vintage will be remembered as a year for high quality crops, especially in the reds, bud burst and flowering flourished in ideal conditions. The resultant wine is big on flavour coming from 30 year old vines that struggle to produce large crops because of their old age and have inherent ability to even out vintage variations.

The wine has an enticing deep vibrant crimson colour with a rich bouquet of dark cherries, plums and chocolate. The palate is medium weight and big with flavours of plums, vanillin oak and tarry leather. The tannins are grainy with a long finish and balance beautifully with the sweet middle palate which has oodles of rich briary fruit.

Cellaring:
This wine is looking very youthful now and deserves cellaring from a year to 8 years before it reaches its prime.