Rosemount Estate Balmoral Syrah 1995.

After dragging the dining table out on the terrace to enjoy a lamb roast meal on a balmy summers evening, four of us enjoyed this flagship wine produced by Rosemount. First bottled under this label in 1992, the wine lived up to it's reputation and after pouring it into Speigel glasses, it was gone all too soon! The colour was deep red, the bouquet a combination of berry fruits, charcoal and meaty smells. Good Okker aromas. Sipping the wine showed it to be of medium body with a European elegant edge which is the style the winemaker was aiming for. Heaps of fruit flavour with a slight blackurrant predominance. Great structure and will live in the bottle for many years to come yet if you are lucky enough to have any in your cellar. The 2002 vintage is the last I can find any reference and I suspect it has gone back to it's original label of "Show Reserve". Now that Fosters has purchased the label (in 2005), it is hard to know whether the same quality persists.

Excellent wine!