2008 Wyndham Estate Bin 525

The follow up to the first of the Wyndham Bin 5xx release is this wine, a Shiraz Grenache blend (51% shiraz 49% grenache). First thing that should shock everyone is the 2008 on the vintage label. WOW. I know that the Australian harvest is on average 6 months before North America (as are Chili, Argentina, South Africa and any other Southern Hemisphere countries, on average), but to say 2008 out loud for a vintage year makes me feel kinda weird. I will not go into great detail about Wyndham or the new bin releases as I did cover that a few weeks back. What I will say is on our tour of the wine regions surrounding Adelaide I was rather shocked at how much grenache is planted, not just planted but there are some very old vines out there (free growing 100+ year old to be exact in Barossa) that you can see below. I do not drink enough grenache in my opinion, as I find that the grape’s spiciness is really quite a treat when done right. Well enough CWG blabber for now, let’s get on with the tasting as I have work to do and wine to drink this fine evening!

This wine is young in colour and nose. Deep purple colour and heavy berry fruit on the nose. Hard to really pull which of the berries came to the nose the fastest, the best I could come up with was RED berry! Once some of the wine was on the palate you get a bit more of dark cherry and red licorice, a nice mix for such a young wine. Bin 525, despite being wetter behind the ears then a newborn, actually spends some time in American and French oak before it is bottled and rushed off to the unwashed masses, yet I got little oak at all from this. What I did get was a wine that actually excited my mouth and did not leave it heavy tannins and a youthful bite, as a certain cartoon character once said ‘excellent Smithers!’. The more I drank this the more I was pleased with it and the underlying spice I got. Without a doubt this is not a cellaring wine, and despite the Shiraz component, keep this to a Gamay/Pinot glass, avoid a Cabernet glass at all costs! I know I may be in good spirits tonight, but I think this is one of the better sub $20 wines I have had this year, the LCBO does carry this. Buy some to enjoy with most any meal but avoid spicy, mild or bland.

The CWG Subjective rating is 87 out of 100.

Mrs CWG has not had any yet, her comments are excluded!

EDIT: Mrs CWG came on to say she liked this wine and that the nose almost had

candy flavour!