Clovely Estate Reserve Shiraz 2010

Clovely Estate Reserve Shiraz 2010 (South Burnett, QLD)
14%, Screwcap, $28
www.clovely.com.au

One of the South Burnett region’s leading lights, you can’t help but feel that, in time, there will be handy wines coming from Clovely Estate. For now the range is patchy and not quite top level, but there is hope, even though it is something of an uphill battle convincing consumers that QLD can make serious wine…

Anyway, this is at least commercially appealing, carrying a nose heavy with sweet oak charriness and a palate similarly sweetened by wood. That barrel treatment is clumsy but it does help to sweeten up what is a slightly heavy, raisin edged palate of syrupy black fruit, finishing full if hot and anything but dainty..

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At present a wine that suggests someone is a little too excited by new barrels, what is important lies underneath – that spicy and plummy fullness suggesting that much can be done in the future. Maybe.

Source: Sample
Tasted: December 2013
Drink: 2014-2017
Score: 15.5/20, 84/100
Would I buy it? Not yet.