Old Plains Power of One Shiraz 2010 (Adelaide Plains, SA)
14%, Screwcap, $28
Source: Sample
www.oldplains.com

Dominic Torzi – he of Torzi Matthews fame – is the driver of this wine, a Shiraz dedicated to celebrating a forgotten part of South Australian wine history – the Adelaide Plains.

The joy of the Plains is as much about its forgotten old vine resource than anything else, with small pockets of very old vineyards (this fruit comes off several 50+ year old plots) scattered all around what is now just the outer suburbs of Adelaide. Indeed one of the vineyard sources for the Old Plains wines has been bulldozed to way for a bunch of 300sqm villa blocks…

Perhaps the only challenge with growing fruit on the warm Adelaide Plains is simply containing that ripeness, the resultant wines sometimes looking more like fruit jam than wine. Don’t come looking for subtlety in red wines from the Plains.

In 2010 though everything came together nicely, the quite moderate conditions making for the perfect environment to craft something special. Couple these perfectly ripened grapes with winemaking designed to emphasise texture – open fermentation, basket pressing, less plunging and 24 months in French oak – and you’ve got something tasty.

The net result is positively decadent too, deep, squid ink purple coloured, the nose very open and inviting and loaded with purple berry fruit. The palate follows with a very rich, silken, molten fruit expression that, whilst it emphasises its warm clime origins with a little warmth, seduces with its plump and quite balanced juiciness, capped off with enough light tannins to bring you back for more.

Voluptuous, gentle and bathed in sunny ripe fruit, this is very easy Shiraz to like with nary a desicated edge in sight. It is definitely not a complex beast but it does the pleasure thing very well. 

Drink: 2012-2018
Score: 17.5/20 91/100
Would I buy it? For a fruit hit then definitely. A pizza wine for sure.