elegant in style, but not austere; and it has all kinds of other interesting flavours. I noted blackberry and plum, minerals, earth, fungus, tar, smoke, maybe sage, pepper, cloves, and violets. Really. It is very well balanced and smooth on the palate, and long. The tannins are fine but firm.It is possible that the smoke flavor I detected was from the duck breast Norman was roasting at the time, not the wine. (We did have to open all of the doors and windows to clear the smoke from the house.) It is also possible that my 93 rating was influenced by the exceptionally good mood I was in the evening we opened this wine, but in any event I would have rated it at least 92 and it is excellent value at $37.
Price: $37.16
Score: 89 (downgraded from Kelly's original score of 93 in light of comments and subsequent tasting)
Value: 3.5/5
Region: Australia, Barossa Valley
Grape: Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvèdre
Tasted: March 2009
UPC: 9338498004806
Posts
Let me start by saying that I have always found it difficult to be a GSM fan. I don't know if it is the "G" or the "M", but I have found that these wines have been over priced for what you get, and haven't held the same interest for me as many other varieties and blends (just personal taste).
ReplyDeleteRecently, I have had a good Chateau Neuf du Papes, that changed my view. But, do you need to spend the CN-du-P $$ in order to appreciate this combination? I think the Colonial Estate Envoy is the answer (for me). And that's interesting considering it's an Aussie version of this French/Rhone standard. (I love starting a sentence with "And").
I think that you do indeed need to spend the $$ to get the goods when it comes to this grape combo.
To the wine:
On the nose there is an initial smell of freshly unwrapped Bazooka Joe bubble gum, but to my dismay, there was no cartoon featuring Joe and Mort debating the merits of GSM (or why Mort wears his turtleneck to his nose).
More obvious and lingering is an intoxicating scent of licorice with wild cherries growing in a pine forest. Some black currants and violet shrubs complete the landscape.
In the mouth, the same melange is apparent, and when I look below the surface I find dark truffles reveal themselves. The feeling on the mouth is fantastic, with layers of flavour from the front of my lips to the back of my tongue. A long finish opens up roses, chocolate, blueberries, and fortunately my next glass.
Score: 90
Value: 3/5
I'm glad you liked the Envoy. We had the Explorateur after we tried the Envoy, and my dislike of the Explorateur got me second guessing the Envoy - could the Envoy really have been that much better, or was it just that we in a really good mood when we had the Envoy?
ReplyDeleteSome good new - the Envoy is now on sale for $28; bad news - only 1 left in F'ton. I don't know if ANBL ships sale wine, but I might see if they'll bring a few bottles in from SJ.
I know what you're saying about GSM. We really like the CDP style, but it's hard to find good value. I think the problem with the Aus version is that Grenache can easily get an unpleasant candied flavour when done in the typical Aus bold fruit-forward style and it is difficult to find a good Aus Grenache / GSM for that reason. But when it is done right, Grenache can add a whole different dimension to a Shiraz. (I haven't had enough varietal Mourvedre to know what that adds.)
Gah. Let me start off by saying that I've been doing very well lately on tasting-to-tasting consistency - using the very same wine wanker words, and assigning the same scores to previously tasted wines. Then this evening I scored the Envoy 83, 10 points lower than my original rating. What bothered me most this evening was a pronounced, lingering bitter taste toward the end palate. Otherwise I think I'd have liked it. I wondered about bottle-to-bottle variation, but Norman says the wine is much as he remembers it; and he doesn't detect the bitterness. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteAs Kelly's comments suggests, I went out last night and got the last bottle of Envoy left in F'ton. I was also disappointed, though I hadn't liked it quite as much as she did the first time, and I liked it more this time. I didn't get any bitterness at all. The problem for me was that the candied Grenache aspect was too pronounced. I had noticed it the first time as well, but I didn't mind it. It's not way over the top, like that flavour sometimes is, but it's right on the border. Maybe that's why mood affected our perception so much. We also finished off a left-over glass of a very solid older Shiraz, and the candy of the Envoy stood out in comparison. I'd be interested to see how this is in a few more years. Maybe it will tone down. A bit of head scratcher. But I'm going to downgrade the original score.
ReplyDelete