2005 Steve Hoff Barossa Shiraz

Sometimes you just need to open a bottle of wine to remind yourself of the many blessings you have in life, wonderful people, friends and family, health and wonderful food to share, and even summer days that are cooler than normal (like much of this summer it seems!).  So to remind myself of all these wonderful things, I've decided to open a nice bottle from down under, the 2005 Steve Hoff Barossa Shiraz, or Syrah as they say in the northern hemisphere!

When I opened the wine, the cork was almost black, and for an 8-year old wine, that's not a bad thing, and it certainly showed it in the color in the glass, a deep, majestic purple at the center and a bright ruby along the edges.  The nose was lovely, rich ripe black fruit, blackberries, cherries and prune, overlaid with lovely notes of leather and anise and some exotic spice notes that just scream Aussie Shiraz!  The taste was very nice, with some rich ripe fruit at the outset, almost jammy at times, blueberries, plum and cassis that transitions to some wild spice midpalate, baking powder and Asian spice.  The tannins are very subdued, yet the finish was still quite nice, smooth and dry.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's a very pleasant example of a classic Barossa Shiraz, and I don't recall if this was a bargain or not since it's been in my cellar a few years (this should be a prompt for me to keep better records eh?).  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with, of course, a grilled lamb chop with a dry spice rub, some linguine tossed with garlic and olive oil and some steamed purple, yellow and green beans that I bought from the farmers' market this past weekend.  Cheers!