Yippee! It's that time again! Time to indulge (and imbibe) in Lenn's
creation (a take-off of Alberto's luscious IMBB events), the third
installment of the ever-popular Wine Blogging Wednesday, or WBW. This
month's vintage is hosted by none other than Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant.
The theme this month: Australian Shiraz. First in my heart, for sentimental
reasons (they were the first wines I ever really drank...not counting of
course the fine California wines my mom allowed us to sip at the dinner
table when I was way under the legal age) and always first choice if someone is running to the LCBO to grab a bottle for one reason or another.

I stopped by the LCBO on my way home from work on Sunday and was hoping to get a bottle of Little Penguin Shiraz. Nope...no such luck -- all they had from that cute vintner was a merlot (which would have worked well for the first WBW... but that's a different story. So I choose a wine I'd never tried -- why not be just a bit daring this time around?

Wine:
Woolpunda Red Block 2002 Shiraz (by the Thompson Family) from South Australia.

Appearance:
Deep, dark, cranberry colour with no cloudiness. When the light shines through it it is this absolute gorgeous colour -- the colour my hair was when I was about 21...I was stopped on the street by strangers on an almost daily basis with the comment "Your hair is gorgeous" an unnatural colour for hair, but a glorious one for wine.

Aroma:
I sniffed, my nose buried deep in the bowl of the glass. There was something familiar in those cranberry depths. I handed the glass to S. and told him "smell and tell me what you think". He said (and I am not kidding): "SHIPWRECKS". Um....well. Okay. But I smelled something a little more familiar and much sweeter than that. I could smell vanilla. At first I thought it might be my own perfume or my hands or something and so I washed my hands and smelled a glass of water. No vanilla. I smelled the wine again and it was most definitely there; my all-time favourite smell of vanilla pods. Not the sticky, sickly sweet smell of cookies or candy, mind you -- the robust, almost musky smell of real vanilla. Oh my...I love that.

Taste: one word, really: SMOOTH. I know most people don't enjoy wines that don't have one specific taste or another, or that don't have some sort of bite or aftertaste. I happen to like a wine that doesn't linger on my palate and this one definitely fits that requirement. It's light, for a red and almost (I said almost!) refreshing...surprisingly enough for something is supposed to be paired with red meat (according to the label on the bottle).

Another thing about this wine -- it tasted great with the pastrami panini sandwiches we had for dinner...and it tasted great alongside the Rolo ice cream I indulged in for dessert...wine and chocolate are not enemies any longer!

The producer has a short, concise wine-tasting note on their site and I honestly think someone missed the boat a little...but who am I? An amateur. Oh well. All I know is this wine, whether anyone else considers it good or bad is now being officially added to my list of new favourites. I'm glad I reached out and chose a wine I'd never tried before...that's what this is about, no?