Aroma: Upon opening the wine it stinks of oak. Not fatal if with aeration it dissipates but not the mark of an exceptional wine. Some 20 minutes later the stink has diminished to simply far too much oak. Heck but if you like oaked wine is there a chance? Putting the oak aside or turning a blind eye to the perfidious grip of oak there is some blackberry, cassis and dark chocolate. Geek it up deception style and say “unintegrated oak”.
Palate: Zippy acidity compounds this disastrous wine to the extent a more polite term cannot be found. Hot-on acidic prickly this palate which doesn’t like “Some Like it Hot” in their wine but enjoys the movie of the same name.
The Mercy Rule: Stay clear of this Aussie disaster. It reeks of wood, has excessive alcohol and deserves to be sent convict style to Australia. If you want to familiarize yourself with a poorly made wine, very necessary to your wine education, try and return.
Price: $17 CDN (Ontario).
RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 59/100. Natalie MacLean 91.
(Hollick 2021 Stock Route Limestone Coast Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon, Hollick Estates, Coonawarra, SE Australia, 14.5%, 750 mL.)
My Intel Reveals: ‘Brewed” in Siberia and grey labelled to the LCBO!
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