Saturday I sat in front of my "cellar" (sounds more sophisticated than wine frig) and caressed bottles for about 20 minutes before deciding on the Two Hands, Max's Garden Heathcote Shiraz, 2005. I have never held on to Australian wine for any length of time so I was curious to see how this was.
According to Two Hands, the grapes grown in Heathcote this particular year were "rich and dense". When I first opened the bottle, I wondered if this was perhaps on it's way out. I got a nose full of acetone. I let it sit for about an hour and started to taste some raspberry and cherry, not as much pepper as I was expecting.
Day two, I took what was left to a party and sampled it again. I enjoyed it more the second day. It had smoothed out and opened up more instead of going south; even tasted some blueberry this time. What has your experience been with aging Aussie wines and Shiraz in particular? I have more.
