What, A Sale?

The Richard Hamilton, Gumpr's Shiraz, is usually a sure fire hit; I still have some of the phenomenal 1997, a "wow" wine last time I tasted it 3 years ago. So it was with the usual slobbering that I pulled the cork on the 2002 version. Nice black stained cork. Pungent nose. Initially a nice silky smooth, medium bodied mouthfeel, but ... it fades quickly and just doesnt't have the oomph I expected. A nice wine, just not as good as I expected. I'll give it a good, but it is marginal in the value rating at $23. There are better Australian wines out there for that price. It beats Greg Norman's Shiraz, though.
The reasons for trying the Tarapaca, Merlot Reserve, 2005 were that I think these guys do good value wine and, more pressing, this one was on sale. You gotta understand, when you deal with a government wine monopoly, things rarely go on sale...so I got excited. Whoa! a whole buck off...$12.95 instead of $13.95. This one has a berryish nose and is full throttle fruit on the palate, with little else. Compares well with the four south american wines I quaffed during the week (see previous posting). Warning though, don't let it sit overnight without preserving the bottle, the fruit blows off quickly leaving little to enjoy. It's an OK to good wine, but at the price is worth trying...if you like it, stock up for midweek drinking (at the big sale price, you get one extra bottle for every 13 you buy...ha ha ha, I think the joke is on us, the consumers).
Cheers!