R Wines "Boarding Pass" Shiraz South Australia 2005

I opened this over the weekend for sampling, for fun.

Deep, plush and sweet - very much in the style of Marquis-Philips. This seems to show mush less oak, though. Maybe a switch to European/French.

The real point, however, is that I tested several recent wines for pH:

Two Hand's Samantha's 2004 = 3.48 pH

Greenock Creek Alice's 2001 = 3.46 pH

Copain Hawk's Butte 2003 = 3.76 pH

Feudi Serpico 2003 = 3.41 pH

Boarding Pass (above) = 3.50 pH

Obviously, there is a world of difference between Copain and the Aussies. You'd expect the Serpico to have a low pH as it is based on Aglianico (but the real point is that the wine "feels" natural). It's the Aussie wines that are the most interesting to dissect. Greenock and Two Hands have a dis-jointed feel in the mouth, their sweetness/roundness don't correlate well with their finishing structure. Boarding Pass does "pass". Even though it's pH is roughly similar, there is a great deal more "flesh" to buffer it's structure. Undoubtedly R Wines uses micro-oxygenation to add flesh/round the tannin.

I have to wonder about the degree of acidulation in all three Aussie wines. But one of them makes it work. I have serious doubts about the other two.