Layer Cake Shiraz
WINE: Layer Cake Shiraz
GRAPE: Shiraz
REGION: Barossa Valley, South Australia
VINTAGE: 2009
PRICE: $12.99
In the glass: Layer Cake Shiraz is a tremendously dense blackish-red color with a deep opaque purplish core going out into a fine violet-fuchsia rim definition with super high painted viscosity.
On the nose: The wine explodes with sexy concentrated black fruit characteristics, mocha, dark chocolate, roasted coffee beans with vanilla flavor, creme brulee, licorice root, spice box and soft earthy minerals laced with slight oak references.
On the palate: It quickly envelops the taste buds with highly concentrated black fruit dominated by blackberries, black cherries, crushed black currants, huckleberries, intense dry extract and gobs of melted licorice. The midpalate reveals yet more spices with underlying aniseed, supple tannins and minerals going into a powerful and long finish that has tons of fruit- and vanilla-laced oak references to the end. It is a superbly concentrated winemaking effort.
Odds and ends: Layer Cake comes from genius winemaker Jayson Woodbridge, whose Hundred Acre wines are considered near the top of the food chain in Napa Valley, Calif. He decided some years ago that not everyone can afford to spend more than $300 for a bottle of wine, so he launched the Layer Cake wines and they were an instant hit. It may still be pound-for-pound the greatest shiraz for less than $30 on the market. Made from all old-vine shiraz from the best vineyard sites in the famous Barossa Valley, this is as good as it gets. Nothing at four times the price comes even close to this quality. It is a big wine that requires opening a couple of hours before consumption, despite the screw cap. It will drink well now through 2015.
Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.
