Maglieri 1997 Shiraz.

Maglieri wines have had a bit of a chequered career. It started out in 1972 as Gully Wines on a 40ha block in the McLaren Vale and renamed to Maglieri in 1977. Here in NZ the wines have not been seen much on the wine retailers shelves mainly being marketed through the NZ Wine Society in the late 1990's. They were eventually bought out by Fosters, but were dropped from their portfolio in 2007. Whether it is back in private ownership and still producing commercial quantities of wine is unknown to this writer.

The red wines that I purchased have always been of consistent quality over the years I was a member of the NZWS, I purchased quite a number of the shiraz and cab sav variety. At 14 years of age this bottle did not disappoint and still had great structure, tannins and fruit. At the time this was made, American oak was in vogue and the sweet coconut vanilla flavour associated with it is still quite apparent, but integrated with deep plum on the palate with hints of blackberry. It hasn't changed much since the last time I tried it which is some time ago and I would imagine it still has some life in the legs yet. The wine maker was John Loxton, a well reputed gentleman who has been making wine in the McLaren Vale for many years (and still is) .