2008 Wine Annual

Water Wheel is an operation of surprising scale given its relatively modest winemaking facility. Its typically ripe and forward varietal table wines are usually well made, fresh and fruity, with a generous length of palate flavour. Furthermore, the reds are typically made with the structure to live well beyond the mean for wines of their price. The 2005 red releases are both of the deeply ripened style.

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.
Slightly spirity and just a fraction dehydrated, this sumptuously flavoured and full bodied cabernet is built around a deep, ultra-ripe and concentrated core of plum, raspberry and currant-like fruit, with a restrained background of cedar/vanilla oak. Very intense and generous, it’s just bordering on over-ripe. 88 points.

2005 Shiraz.
Deep, dark and vibrant, its intense blackberry and dark plum fruit soaks up its sweet vanilla/cedar American oak influences but leaves a lingering suggestion of slightly dehydrated raisin and currant-like flavour. Backed by peppery, spicy suggestions of cloves and cinnamon, it’s thick, rich and meaty, with a firm undercarriage of pliant tannin. 89 points.

2006 Memsie Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec.
First released less than 12 months old, chook full of blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, backed by firm tannins. Great now or later proposition; small wonder it often appears in Qantas business class. Rating 90.