Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier 2006 Monday, Feb 18 2008
Tasting Notes and Australia and Canberra and Variety and Red and shiraz et al
A lot of lift on the nose, spices and red fruits, quite plummy, fresh apricots and perhaps a slightly baked spice character. The palate was rich and very smooth, delicious red plums and spices, soft tannins and excellent length. On the second night a bit of the fruit had dropped out of the wine and some cool climate traits emerged, and though it showed the same lifted florals, there was now a bit of pepper and meat, and a barky spice character. Effortless drinking. Consume now with a decant or cellar for a couple of years.
Rated : 93 Points
Tasted : Feb08
Alcohol : 15.7%
Price : $59.50
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2010 - 2014
Source : Winery Sample
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12 Responses to “Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier 2006”
February 18th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
A wine that started life at one price, and then post-show result, ended up at a much higher price. Not a buy for me.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:42 am
15.7% seems pretty boozy for a region like canberra… Is that a typo?
February 19th, 2008 at 9:12 am
No.
GW
February 19th, 2008 at 10:14 am
2006 was difficult for a lot of Canberra district vineyards with restricted water. Even though it was a warm year and an early vintage, some producers had difficulty getting fruit through to full phenolic ripeness (especially tannins). Lerida was one of these. I’m reasonably sensitive to alcohol heat and this has not been hot the couple of times I’ve looked at this wine.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Yep, not hot, despite the 15.7% abv
Shame about the price rise - I didn’t know about this - though I was surprised to see the $60 price tag when I went to the website.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
Response to ps and Lincoln, the statement that the price went up after winning the three trophies is quite wrong. The 2006 Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier has NEVER been listed atless than $59.50. True, we are thinking of putting it up now, but that is because it is selling so quickly, and we have discovered that it is $15-20 a bottle less than some comparable wines.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
I can only think of Clonakilla at that price?
Looking forward to trying this myself.
GW
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Jim, good luck to you, your challenge is then to keep producing at the same quality level, to get a track record like those “comparable wines”. There are a few wineries who have in the past gotten carried away with a few awards and jacked their prices up, to find they were hard to sell in later years when the awards weren’t there, despite high quality in some cases. Two quite recent examples are the recently sold Classic Mclaren and Viking, where wines once priced at $45 and up are now selling via a clearance house for $19.95.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I have spoken with Jim and there has been no jacking up of prices. The wine has always been the same price..so I am not sure what the point of the comment is other than the wine is priced fully possibly without a significant track record.
GW
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Yeah I read what Jim said and believed him, I was commenting on “thinking of putting it up now, but that is because it is selling so quickly”, which might have something to do with the bunch of awards it has won as well as quality of this particular vintage. That was my point, sorry if it wasn’t clear.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Gary Walsh said :
Why stop at Clonakilla? Standish, Hobbs and Torbreck set the price benchmarks for S-V. Why don’t you (or Lerida) organise a taste-off?
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
RE makes a valid point about showing consistency, my wife (the managing director) agrees, and that is probably the end of that idea.
Also, on RE’s suggestion on the taste-off, we have done this with Pinot Noir over a dinner at Anise, using some good burgundies and NZ look-alikes. It was really interesting listening to the comments around the room. We will certainly try and set this up with Shiraz Viognier if we can get other makers to cooperate. I would add Yves Cuilleron of the northern Rhone to the taste-off. He is a role model, and his winemaker has helped us in the past.