Chapel Hill

Time for a different wine, different continent. That's one of the great things about wine - you couldn't sample all the different wines out there even if you were a pro working for a magazine scoring them. And the wines are so different, it's fun to hop around trying them.
I've had wines from Chapel Hill in Australia before, they are hit and miss but usually pretty dense, chunky efforts. The 2003, Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale/Coonawarra fits the bill. Nice deep opaque colour. Initially very closed - thick, tannic, not very pleasant. Leave it for a few hours (or overnight!) and it comes back with dark chocolate and blackberries mixed with a little sweet red licorice. The tannins soften with time leaving a rich mouth coating.
A little unbalanced, but not bad - a good wine. OK value at $18.

Cheers!!