At Genders I always look forward to a visit from Philip White, who took the opportunity to sample the latest creations.
- 2009 “Duncan” – McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 95+++ points
- 2008 “Keith” Shiraz Grenache 92+++ points
The review is a copy of Philip’s INDAILY article.
14.5% alcohol; screw cap; 92+++ points
“I live to make ‘seventies wine,” Diana Genders said a week ago. “I just don’t do micro-ox or those things. I’m here to wait. Like we used to do.”
We were in her comfy tasting-by-appointment only winery on McLaren Flat, drinking her best vintages from the last fifteen years. The oldest, the 2000 Cabernet was just beginning to awaken. Now I’m startled to realise that like that wine, I’ve had this new release Shiraz Grenache opened all that time, and it’s showing signs of stirring, too.
A week back, this was so brutally reclusive it scared me. It reminded me of ‘seventies Penfolds reds, tight and compressed within their surly sappy carapace, sometimes softened a little like this, with some Grenache.
Now it’s a rich, smoky, surly stew of a thing, a welling wallow of blackberry, mulberry, dried fig and prune with a prickly aniseed/fennel edge. It’s syrupy of texture, and almost seductive, but then the reinforcements arrive: the acid and tannin footsoldiers rock in to warn you that this is not gonna be a walkover.
It does indeed remind me too, eventually, of the rich, staunch wines Diana’s Dad Keith made in that same little building when I was still in pimples.
I reckon Diana’s wines are cleaner and more precise, which serves only to make them more gradual about getting around to your actual glowing. As she said, she’s not into deliberate oxidation as has been the fashion for years, softening wines with the vinous equivalent of the fish tank bubbler.
This very seriously is a trip into the past. I wonder if I drink a case will I get my yoof back?
Reproduced from Drinkster