GSM Tastyness

Tonight's wine is a 2005 Cape Barren GSM (Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre) from the McLaren Vale of Australia.  Wow, what a huge difference between this and the last wine from the McLaren Vale, the d'Arenberg (see last post.)  Obviously, this is a blend, but it still is a much more tasty.  Although, this wasn't an amazing wine, it was a really solid effort.  I'm always curious what the "critics" say about wines - I make an effort to try the wine, make my decision about what I think, then see what they say.  This wine got 90-91 scores - pretty solid scores.  Especially at $13 at the Wine House.  And looking it up told me it was 50% grenache, 40% syrah, 10% mourvedre.

Not the normal blow-your-nose-off stewed fruit of many Aussie wines.  Nice dark fruit, although there is quite a bit of oak and vanilla on the nose, but not overwhelming.  Also get the oak on the palate, but it's not obnoxious at all.  Very dry, which I like.  Well balanced.  Good dark fruit. Medium tannins.  Overall, very nice.  Very much recommend.