Pyramids Road 2019 ‘Second Pick’ Shiraz

The label says that the shiraz is normally picked in two batches approximately a week apart, these are then blended and bottled. I haven’t talked to Warren about this but I presume this is, among other factors, a ‘natural’ way to manage the acid. This practice wasn’t followed for the 2019 vintage, the fruits being picked 8 days apart and bottled separately.2019 shiraz

Deeply coloured with the expected glowing puppy purple hues from the young fruit. The young oak floats on the bouquet transporting soft vanilla wafts bestrewed with caramel to your senses, there are loquacious black fruits and less talkative blue accompanied by a rather subdued recital from the spice. The bouquet is big but young, it’s still learning it’s art but will become a gifted narrator 5 years hence. The wine is immediately squishy in the mouth as the ripe fruits offer a flavoursome and simultaneously relaxing palatal massage, blackberries, tremendously black plums, blueberries and some suggestion of dark chocolate present in turn and are then spun together to produce an emerging christmas fruit cake offered on a vanilla platter with delicate sprinkles of coconut. The main condiment is black pepper which does, nevertheless, experience a slight late flirtation with white. The tannins are soft but manage to produce some late drying along with succulent red frogs, the acid is well balanced with the fruit weight and likewise the oak. A soft mouthfeel that harbours big flavours and considerable balanced length are hallmarks of this wine.

This Shiraz is approachable now but why bother as it’s undergoing transformational change and personally I’d like to encounter it later in that evolution.

Tasted: Saturday 19th September, 2020 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $35
Suggested Drinking Window: 2022 to 2040
Winemaker: Waren Smith
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Posted by Peter Pacey

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