1998 Best's Great Western Shiraz Bin O

[Salil Benegal]

1998 Best's Great Western Shiraz Bin O
This is one of those wines I could have just kept smelling all night - the first impression is just of eucalyptus, mint, earth and touches of dark chocolate, then with a little air the aromatics expand as blackberry and plummy fruit flavours emerge along with cinnamon and pepper notes. In the mouth it's still very youthful showing plenty of bright fruit, dark chocolate and earth up front, but turning more savoury and herbal on the back end, finishing with a refreshing cool mintiness. Really fantastic wine combining power and elegance with the structure and balance to age for a good while - makes me think of a more civilized Wendouree with a lot less tannin. I'm delighted to have more of this.

 

[Graeme Gee]

I always wondered at '0'. It's all very well and all for these ancient Australian wineries to name their wines Bin 389, and Vat 1, and Bin 61, and claim that it's the simple extension of the winery storage system onto the bottle label. And, look, often it is (or was, until that marketing git at Penfolds decided to name a wine Bin 707 in 1964).

But what kind of noddy started numbering the bins in the cellar with 0? Someone who thought that the new century began in 1900?

Special prize goes to Anton Bruckner, late of Vienna and Linz. 'Symphony No 0' - now that was a master stroke.

They're mostly pretty good wines out of Great Western. Always have been.
cheers,
Graeme

 

[kirk wallace]

originally posted by Graeme Gee:
I always wondered at '0'. It's all very well and all for these ancient Australian wineries to name their wines Bin 389, and Vat 1, and Bin 61, and claim that it's the simple extension of the winery storage system onto the bottle label. And, look, often it is (or was, until that marketing git at Penfolds decided to name a wine Bin 707 in 1964).

But what kind of noddy started numbering the bins in the cellar with 0? Someone who thought that the new century began in 1900?

Special prize goes to Anton Bruckner, late of Vienna and Linz. 'Symphony No 0' - now that was a master stroke.

They're mostly pretty good wines out of Great Western. Always have been.
cheers,
Graeme

And here I thought it was just binary.