Philip White – Adelaide Independent Review – December 2011
Bellevue Estate McLaren Vale Shiraz 2010 – $18; 14.5% alcohol; screw cap;

COREY Vandeleur grows and makes this in the main street of McLaren Vale, in the Maslin Sand  at the Bellevue (western) end, opposite the Visitors’ Centre. It’s much better value than any of the posh Scarce Earths wines I reviewed on DRINKSTER on Tuesday, and probably a more honest reflection of its site than most of them. It has some sweet dark oak, sure, but it’s been done with more sensitivity.

In this moody, glowering fruit, with all its juniper and blueberry, there’s room for the odd black barrel. Atop all that gothic stuff, there’s a pretty fringe of musk and mint, maybe some fennel. Aniseed balls. The palate’s more slender and lithe than that bouquet set me up for; the illusion of sweetness intensifies, so pure and intense is its fruit. And then its lovely infant tannin, jumping around the cot. This honest vigor brought a complex Beaujolais to mind, maybe Moulin-a-vent, but that’s way north of Belleville, on the Macon track, in Eastern France where they grow Gamay. And this is obviously ripe Australian Shiraz. It’s after-breath is hotter than I’d expected, but she all stacks up.

Really lively, lovely, strapping Vales Shiraz at a deadly price.
Reduced spinach and salt fish rice with 1.Duck. 2.Goose. 3.Pork.