Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz

2004 Vintage
Tasted: July 2010
This one has been sitting in “the cellar” for a while now, and for whatever reason I haven’t drank it. I guess I knew it was good and probably worth saving, but I probably should have drank it by now. Anyway, I digress.

Later vintages of this wine scored in the 90+ range at Wine Spectator, so I’m going to venture a guess that the 2004 would fit in close to that range too.

On opening my first instinct is “wow, that’s smooth!” The nose is soft fruit, and not too boozy. It’s quite smooth on the palate and still possesses good acid on the back end, but is a little soft on tannins and fruit. It has definitely taken on some of the mushy blackberry characteristics, but still has a bit of smoke and leather in there somewhere.

The finish is probably shorter than it once was, but is still decent with a bit of lingering ripe fruit. I think it’s softened beyond gamy meat territory, but is certainly an easy sipper at this point, and tasty too. If you’ve got some of the ’04 vintage around I would hurry up and drink it!

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