2002 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz

Notes Sourced from Fox Creek Wines

appearance
Very deep red/back with crimson edges.

bouquet
The nose offers multiple levels of complexity with sweet blackberry, chocolate, licorice and vanilla evident complemented by savoury well-balanced oak.

palate
Very rich powerful entry of blackberry with savoury spice, licorice and dark chocolate filling out the mid palate, leading to a long finish balanced by well integrated tannin structure of great depth.

winemaking
The fruit for the 2002 Reserve Shiraz was primarily sourced from our 'Willows Block' at Fox Creek and harvested between 14.2° and 14.8° Baumé. Fermentation on skins was for 8 days with a proportion of the wine (40%) completing fermentation in new American (70%) and French (30%) oak. The wine was matured for 15 months in new and 1 year old American and French oak. During this time the wine was racked 3 times, allowing us to assess the quality of the wine and fine-tune our oak regime.

ageing potential
This wine, if cellared correctly, will drink well up to 2015 reflecting the full-bodied structure of the best wines made in the cool summer of 2002. This wine will repay decanting up to 2 hours prior to consumption.

Other Reviews...
Firm, long and very smooth Shiraz that holds its 15% of alcohol with relative ease.  Its peppery, spicy fragrance is a complex one, with briary blackberry, cassis and slightly meaty aromas of dark olives offset by sweet milk chocolate and vanilla oak.  Very intense and assertive, its long, smooth palate of deep blackberry, redcurrant and dark plum flavours is bound by fine, yet firm tannins.  There’s some spirity warmth, plus a suggestion of tarry, spicy currant-like flavour.  Long and complete, it finishes with just a hint of mint and menthol.
93 Points
Jeremy Oliver - The Australian Wine Annual 2006