Truly the cream of the crop this beauty is a prime Barossa Shiraz, smoother than a Bond and richer than a Rothschild, with a seductive quality that’s going to keep you coming back again, and again, and again. Youthfully coloured (more red and purple hues than usual) the flavours are an intriguing combination of red and black fruit, liquorice, and a powerful charred oakyness. There’s a thread of coconut, chocolate and vanilla that winds up in the back of the throat, a perfect compliment to a smooth finish. Moving between being both full and medium bodied the texture is thick and chewy, but without being out of control, the result is surprisingly harmonious, or maybe just a case of perfectly controlled chaos.
This will cellar like a champ for at least another decade and like a George-Clooney-of-wine will only get better with age.
ACCOLADES AND AWARDS:
James Halliday, The Australian Wine Companion: 95 Vivid purple hue; the bouquet offers an intriguing blend of red and black fruits, hints of licorice and bitter chocolate, and a seasoning of charry oak; the palate is evenly balanced, fresh and vacillates between medium and full bodied in a most pleasant manner; long, complex, juicy, focused and harmonious, the sum of the parts has come together to present a complete wine.
Mike Bennie, The Wine Front: 93 "Big bottles, drive me out of my mind. How could I leave this behind..."
Little late onto these releases of the Super Premium Mega Wines of First Drop and the heavy-as-can-be bottles drew me to Spinal Tap’s treatise to posteriors. Big bottles. Or something like that. This is shiraz from mostly Ebenezer with a large portion of Greenock and a touch of Seppeltsfield. Spends 20 months in oak, with American and French wood used. Gosh, so inky, so rich, so sweet. It’s a creamy (!) flow of slippery, ripe, rich, dense fruit, set on waves of lush tannin and freshening acidity. Scents are into the young port zone, dried fruit, stewed berries, nougat, but the wine never feels out of control or overwhelming. Nectar. Sweet, sweet nectar. It’s over the top but there’s enough balance in the style. It’s going to thrill those looking for density and plushness and a full figure. Go on. Wink wink.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: 94+ Deep purple-black in color, the 2010 The Cream Shiraz is slightly mute with restrained aromas of black plums, black cherries and cedar over suggestions of mulberries and cinnamon toast. Full-bodied, taut and muscular in the mouth, it offers tons of black fruit and spice flavors that are well-poised and structured with a good backbone of bright acid and firm grainy tannins. It finishes long. Drink 2015 to 2025+
Huon Hooke: 93 Deep, dark youthful red/purple colour; very good hue. Massively oaky. Coconut, vanilla, chocolate aromas and flavours. Very full-bodied and dense, thick and chewy in texture, with truck-loads of tannin and fruit-sweet opulence. Fruitcakey, big and ballsy with more structure than usual in this style of wine. A good example of a big style. Cellar it!
Don't Pay: $115.00
WBW Rating: 96/100
Closure: Stelvin
Region: Barossa Valley, SA
Winemaker: Matt Gant & John Restas
Drink now until: 2025+
Alc/Vol: 14 %
