Description
Adam Foster was a chef who threw down his apron and picked up a corkscrew in 2002. Fully immersed in the industry he is knowledgeable on both theory and practice (and tasting of) the great wines of the world. I’ve been lucky enough to taste every vintage of this wine that has been made since 2004. Each year the name changes to reflect the mood of the vintage but the philosophy does not. Extracting the best possible expression from the vintage from a single vineyard. The range includes some other delicacies which we will see in good time. Be sure to check out the Foster e Rocco wines that are also his babies.
2012 was a dream vintage for growing grapes and here we are trying a wine that lets Adam show what he wants to do. Crunchy, currants, tapanade/olives, graphite, toasty and creamy oak, plums and damp leaves. The nose is heaven. It keeps changing and offering new flavours at each sip. On the palate it offers a tart, oaky, chocolatey, wine with gritty tannins, a hint of bitterness and very clean. Red fruits at the core and a perfume of violets that lingers. It is very easy to drink this wine and I find the bottle evaporating as I type, but I am compelled to leave some for another night because this will almost certainly improve with age. Another 5 years minimum but 10 or 15 are within reason. Serve with your favourite cut of organic steak or with some bitey cheddar.
Heathcote
The glamour region of Victoria for lovers of big reds. And the core production is Shiraz and Cabernet with ‘guts’. But it is a region that offers a lot of diversity when you scratch the surface. The cooler southern parts border Macedon and make lovely aromatic wines. There is a lot of experimentation and adoption of more drought resistant Italian varieties to great effect too.
Shiraz/Syrah
A bit of a chameleon, Shiraz can change how it looks depending on terroir and/or wine maker influence. The Syrah based wines of Northern Rhone are dry and austere while the Shiraz of Barossa is rich and fleshy. A variety that lends itself to long aging but can be drunk at any time of its evolution.
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