PETER LEHMANN BAROSSA SHIRAZ - 2005

Peter Lehmann built his Australian winery in 1979 and the Barossa Shiraz is considered his "foundation wine"

The Peter Lehmann Shiraz was matured in French and American oak hogsheads for 12 months prior to bottling. Sporting its traditional Queen of Clubs label, this Aussie red has an alcohol content of 14.5%.

TASTING NOTES:

You can't complain about color with this Shiraz. It is deep red-black and like previous offerings you can't even see the bottom of the glass. The aromas and flavors of this wine are rich with raspberry, black currant, plum and toasty oak. The finish is incredibly long beginning with fresh plum before giving way to black cherry candy. The alcohol is way out of balance making the wine very "hot."

SCORE & RECOMMENDATION:

87 PTS

This is a very difficult wine to score. It is not the kind of wine you'll want to open and drink right away unless you like enormous amounts of alcohol upfront. Since this wine retails for around $15, most people will purchase it to consume immediately which makes it tricky to recommend. You really need to decant this wine or let it breathe...for like 2 days. Not kidding. After the alcohol settles down the flavors emerge and it becomes a lot more pleasing on the palate. As I write this I'm drinking it on day 2 and it is opening up nicely but it still needs more time to soften.