Nine Stones Shiraz

It is Sunday night and Tom is packing for a business trip so I picked out a nice wine for our before-he-leaves night. This is so interesting. When I first poured the wine, I found it to be incredibly subtle with a velvety texture and soft tannins. But, now, after dinner has been eaten and the dishes washed, the wine has opened up and changed quite dramatically. No longer subtle, it is fruity, tannic and intense. Delicious.

For dinner I made baked pasta with steamed broccoli. I also needed to use up some milk so I made a baked brown rice pudding with lots of custardy filling with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Warburn Estate Shiraz (2008)

It is a Tuesday evening at our household; a winter storm warning is in effect for tonight and tomorrow and we are hunkering down to read the paper and see what happens. Neither Tom nor I had a particularly happy day at our jobs so we are glad to be here together, licking our wounds, so to speak.  Jobs can be demanding!

For dinner, I put the pot of soup that I made this weekend on the stove to heat. I took the rest of the bread that I baked this weekend on the table and I took a chunk of cheese out of the refrigerator to warm to room temperature. This will make a delicious, but very, very easy dinner. I just didn’t have the energy to do much else tonight.

Tom chose this Warburn Estate Shiraz 2008 for us tonight. This is a great wine to taste and describe . . . the color is deep purple and the nose is grassy and vegetal; the taste is blackberries and freshly-ground black pepper. The feel in the mouth is round and supple with soft tannins. The finish is long and peppery. I like this wine . . . we haven’t had an Australian Shiraz for awhile and this is nice.

Yalumba Barossa Shiraz (2005)

This Australian Barossa Shiraz is 95% Shiraz and 5% Voignier. Tom chose this wine for us because I was trapped (Trigger was on my lap). It is a Monday night and I had to work late so I have a pot of leftover soup on the stove to heat up.

This wine is impressive. I was surprised to see the alcohol content at 14.5% because I didn’t notice any heat on the nose. Rather, I noted dried apricots and flowers.

The first taste is chocolate and dried apricots.  The mid-palate shows some cherries and plum along with pepper. There are also hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. The finish is chocolate, apricots and cloves with velvety tannins.

This is a very fine wine. I believe I purchased this at  A & L Wine in Ann Arbor. I would definitely purchase this again.