Just to prove to everyone that I’m not all about jibes and jokes, I thought I’d write this weeks’ review without making even one reference to the obvious Batman jokes that are there.
Good, quality cheaper reds are few and far between. A few weeks ago I managed to get some of Gotham’s new vintage. The 2008 Gotham McLaren Vale Shiraz is not available locally, it can be sourced on the net (try Get Wines Direct for a start), and, coming in at less than TEN DOLLARS a bottle, this has quickly become my favourite quaffer. To make sure it wasn’t just me that thought this was that good, I tried it with a few mates and it out punched some of the bigger names, up to about the $25bottle mark. Even if you include freight into the price you’re still only looking at somewhere around $12.
There’s no way that you will find a red this good at that price. A big call, I know.
Gotham is made by Bruce Clugston, who was won numerous awards; including receiving 95pts from Robert Parker Jr., and five stars from James Halliday with their 2005 Shiraz. Clugston’s got it spot on with this vintage producing a lovely deep, dark wine with a strong purple/red in the glass. The nose is rich with plums and spices including fennel, black pepper, with coffee/mocha highlights. On the tongue it has a ‘Christmas cake” taste with superb velvety mouth feel and good length, you could still taste the fruits and spices lingering in the mouth after the last drop.
The fruit for the new vintage was sourced from two regions in the McLaren Vale, 60% from Willunga, and 40% from Northern Ridge of McLaren Vale. 2008 was a great year for the grapes to ripen with a heat wave in mid March. The primary and secondary fermentation were completed in new American Oak and then the wine was racked to a combination of new and 1 year old American oak (50:50) for 10 months maturation. The Willunga vineyard produces the lovely rich plum flavours and the Northern Ridge vineyards produce spice, fennel and mocha. I could only find two let downs with this Drop; one it needed to breath for a while as it has just been bottled, and secondly that after four bottles and a few beers between us, I woke up with a blinder of a headache. Must’ve been something I ate……
This is a hard one to rate on the thirstometer; normally I’d say 3.5 out of 5. But when you look at it value wise you would be crazy not to say that this is a 5 out of 5, overall I’ll play safe and say 4.
