Tasting notes

Upon release d’Arenberg’s The Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier has a vivid dark purple colour. The Viognier adds fragrance and the perfume of flowers, nectarines, ginger and herbs, serving to enhance the very ripe spectrum of the Shiraz, namely blackberry, blueberry and boysenberry. These same characters are also evident on the palate and prevail with a smooth glycerol impact, following through to the mid palate with fruity tannin.. The structure has an accent on fine structure and a gritty long fruit tannin. After time in bottle the d’Arenberg’s Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier’s flavours should intensify as with other wines from the d’Arenberg stable. The restrained tannin and acidity will produce a seamless velvety rolling length with age.

Rating

92 Points Robert Parker - 1998 The Ironstone Pressings (70% Grenache, 20% Shiraz, and 10% Mourvedre) is a powerful, dense, thick, slightly monolithic effort with copious amounts of blackberry fruit, huge body, and the potential to evolve for two decades. Even though it had been in the bottle for some time when I tasted it, it was still unformed. With silky tannin, explosive richness, and potentially top-flight perfume, it will have many admirers after another six months of bottle age. It should last for 15 years.