2006 Mollydooker Shiraz Velvet Glove- Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (3/12/2017)
Served single-blind, and following a lot of classic Syrah from all around the world, this seemed an absolute affront to the senses. EtOH rips at the nose, the flavors are exaggerated like reflections in a sideshow house of mirrors. There is no tact here, no subtlety, no grace whatsoever. This clearly caters to the most hedonistic portion of the sugar compulsed cocktail wine crowd, which is fine, but for my palate/preferences, this was light years away from even the most liberally accepted forms of caricature. I think I’ve rated less than five wines (out of 5,000+) as 'I don’t like", this would be very near to the top. A wine built upon marketing alone, which is to say hollow and bereft of soul. A perverse parody of fine wine. That said, hold your bottles for at least 8-10 years, this is nothing but primary, clumsy and sickly sweet. HOLD.
A regular in our monthly group invited someone else as another regular couldn’t make it that night - visiting family. Great guy, lousy grape juice. Perhaps we’ve all been in a similar spot at one time or another. All good, life goes on.
Wine Spectator - “Rich, ripe and harmoniously balanced, this is dense with blackberry, plum, licorice, cream and spice flavors that don’t quit as the finish sails on and on. Has tremendous presence, yet remains supple through the expressive finish. Drink now through 2020.”
RP97:
The Wine Advocate - "The 2006 Velvet Glove is the first vintage ever made and is deep garnet-black in color with an alluring meaty and gamey nose accented by smoky bacon, a bit of brine and iron ore, some dried plums and black berry preserves and notes of figs and eucalyptus. Full-bodied and crisp, it is richly concentrated with coffee and raisin flavors, has medium levels of velvety tannins and excellent length on the finish. I found the nose to be showing just a little muted, so give 1-2 years and drink to 2024+. "
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Fascinating.
From the different notes, I bet I would land with Tim on this.
This is one of the most interesting divides in the hobby, to me.
I’m trying to think back to when the trend toward appreciation of this style of wine began, but I can’t recall. I’d love to see what other people would say about the point where the “AFWE” and the “fruit bombers” diverged. It’s an interesting part of the hobby.
None of that was meant to be inflammatory.
Absolutely! My point was just that scores on CT tend to reflect the tastes of people who have chosen to buy a particular wine – not the average score you’d get with a cross-section of wine lovers. The same thing works with, say, Burgundy. The average scores there are probably higher than they would be if there were a lot Mollydooker owners were rating the wines.
Absolutely! My point was just that scores on CT tend to reflect the tastes of people who have chosen to buy a particular wine – not the average score you’d get with a cross-section of wine lovers. The same thing works with, say, Burgundy. The average scores there are probably higher than they would be if there were a lot Mollydooker owners were rating the wines.[/quote]
I agree, if you spend $250 for a bottle of wine it will likely be a style that you like and it certainly you might be prone to somewhat skew your CT rating. I believe that the high rating though are primarily because there is a group who like this style. Certainly one of the fascinating dimensions of our hobby.
This is a good question, I don’t know if he enjoyed it; I did kind of feel bad, at first. I think he enjoyed the experience of seeing/tasting so many examples of Syrah, of seeing what’s possible, more than anything else. In that vein, I don’t think it was wasted at all, not on any of us, it’s always good to know what we don’t know.
And I don’t think it was the group that didn’t enjoy that style of wine, unless by style you mean really terrible. There were none that the table that wouldn’t love sinking their teeth into a ten year old Bond Vecina or a 2010 Pontet Canet, if given the chance, but in the instant case, the wine was buggered to a point of no return. That said, I thought it was a poorly kept Saxum from an uber-ripe vintage, i.e. a points king; I’d have welcomed any Saxum over this. With open arms.
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