Beauty and the (not quite) Beast

This weekend was gorgeous, sunny and warm and the company was most excellent. So, I had to open a nice bottle of red, chose a highly rated aussie, the St. Hallet, Barossa Blackwell Shiraz, 2003. This was the beauty - a beautiful nose, beautiful creamy fruit, beautifully integrated tannins, overall a pretty elegant (for Barossa) yet still full bodied wine.
The Verdict: pretty damn close to a WOW.
Value: Not cheap at $29, but worth it.

While shopping on friday, something caught my eye - a box wine that promised to be more than tanker boxed plonk (box wine is usually pretty beastly stuff). The Banrock Station, 2004 Shiraz needed a tryout because when we go off on wilderness trips, we can't take bottles. Tetrapak boxes are a great convenience (light, pretty indestructible and burnable!) and because wine tastes soooo gooood out in the bush, even an OK wine becomes good. This one left a nice reddish tinge on the plastic cap (ha ha!) and smelled nice and fruity. On the palate it was unanimous - this wasn't a bad wine. Lotsa strawberry/raspberry fruit with very light pleasant tannins.
The Verdict: Good.
Value: at $14 for a one litre box, good.

cheers!