Philip White – Indaily Review – February 2013
Bellevue Estate McLaren Vale Shiraz 2011 – $18; 14.5% alcohol; screw cap; 93+++ points

DON’T ask how winemaker Corey Vandeleur can get this wine on the market at this silly little price.
It has something to do with no sales or marketing staff and a hatred of having wine lying around in the warehouse while he’s off making wine for a living somewhere else. But he grows and makes this on the family property in McLaren Vale, and a fine example of the region’s mellow fruitfulness it is. If it had more sappy American oak, I’d liken it to the best of the Wolf Blass Grey Label reds of the ’70s and ’80s. Because it’s all old oak and a lot of it French, it’s a better wine than those were at their release, and that screwcap will ensure it’s a much better wine upon maturity: Blass reds had notoriously variable corks. But it IS similar in style to those trophy-bedecked glories of yore. And it’s $18. Rich, intense, brooding, and silky-smooth, it’s a perfect example of McLaren Vale Shiraz at its most soulful. And it’s another grand example of how the most canny and sensitive vignerons made exemplary wines from the tricky 2011 vintage. It’ll live for decades in the cellar; ideally, I’d attack it in 2020. I doubt that I’ll find another bargain of this quality before the year’s end.

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