Penfolds RWT Shiraz 2006 Barossa Valley

Thunderous Aussie shiraz power

Advantages: Hugely polished, svelte, warms you up on a cold evening
Disadvantages: Could be a bit OTT in flavour for some

Australian reds wines often have the reputation of being flavoursome and muscular on the palate and on the whole I would say that this is true. If this is indeed your style of wine and you like to take this kind of experience to extremes then you do worse than investing your time in drinking an Aussie classic from Marks and Spencer. This is particular beast is M&S's Barossa Valley Shiraz available at £7.99 a bottle (sometimes it is on offer too) and is made for M&S by the winemakers, St Hallett, who have been known to produce some monster Shiraz in their time. The Barossa in South Australia, near Adelaide, is a premium region for the production of massively flavoured red wines made from the Shiraz grape and this wine encapsulates this perfectly. However, if you find intensely flavoured and full bodied reds a bit too much for drinking ...

zallin 19.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Marks & Spencer Barossa Shiraz

Huge and opulent Australian Shiraz

Advantages: Luxurious taste, Good for special occassion, nice classy label
Disadvantages: Expensive !

Sometimes I crave a rich and hugely flavoured red wine to wash me away on a luxurious wave of pleasure. One of my favourite ways of doing this is to treat my expectant palate to a bottle of Penfold?s Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz from South Australia. Penfold?s are a very well known Australian wine maker who produce a full range of wines from the moderately priced (the Rawson?s Retreat range at around £4-5 for example) to the monstrously expensive which is represented by The Grange wine which is a famous Shiraz that retails for well over £100. Fortunately the Bin 28 is priced considerably lower at the £10-11 mark. This makes it in my opinion a special occasion or treat wine rather than a casual everyday glugger. It also tends to be widely available and I have seen it in Tesco, the Co-op and Somerfield. The wine that I drank was from the very ...

zallin 20.07.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz

Vintage Australia

Advantages: Attractive countryside, attractive wines
Disadvantages: Creeping urbanisation, and industrial-scale production

particularly good, but then these are what the region is noted for, although all sorts of other varieties, whites included, are grown in the Barossa Valley too. Back on the busy main road in the village of Nuriootpa, we next visit Elderton Wines, another of the smaller producers, family-owned for over 100 years. Here, though, the interior is modern but informal, with pale green walls and wood-topped bar, and functional. Once again, full-bodied red wines predominate, especially the powerful though smooth Shiraz, but the enthusiastic Julia behind the bar also introduces us to a subtly sweet dessert wine, made from Semillon picked late after being concentrated by botrytis mould. Even my wife, who harbours an eccentric prejudice against Australian wines, likes this one. Still, on a car-borne expedition of this kind, it's as well to have ...

torr 06.07.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Barossa Valley (Australia)