Swinney Syrah 2019 from Frankland River WA
Initial pour, there’s slight reduction on the nose. On the palate elegant, mellow, great texture, nice weight with the alcohol sitting in balance too with a touch of a tingle. Mellow, smooth, not amazing. Need to look tomorrow. WAIT – just switched to the burgundy glass – gorgeous purity to the nose – real elegant, just ripe berries on the nose. On the palate more together, still fairly light , maybe even lighter actually. Second pour in the Bordeaux glass and its becoming something else still with a hint of reduction on the nose though. OOOOOOOH half hour out in the glass and it’s completely different. Palate has completely opened up – stewed blueberries baked into a pie crust – delish! Love it. Great representation of an aussie style Syrah – can’t replicate French but in all honesty they’ve done a great job. Glad to include this along with the Chapoutier so you can see the real deal and the aussie imitation both delish and worth drinking in their own right. Ok an hour in I think and the reductive nose has blown off – we need to decant this. You know it’s just not that lovable. It’s got merit for sure, it’s just not like wow you know (I’m having to seek out the impressive traits, rather than them being obvious). Very nice though, better in the Bordeaux glass. DAY 2 – It’s better, but actually Sulpher still on nose.
@balancewineco Wine Club standard? NO .....not yet
UPDATE - Tasted again 2 months later - 10 September 2021
Nose is fine this time around thank goodness.
Lovely polished blueberries. On the palate generous, concentrated but with a lovely acid lift at the end. Perfect sitting on the couch wine, easy to finish the bottle I suspect.
Ripe bright fruits, refined, elegant, soft dusty tannin structure – really gorgeous.
Tasted this a couple months back and it had a terrible Sulphur nose to it – so glad I had another to taste – showing beautifully well.
This was my first experience with Swinney this year – was so disappointed and now I’m honestly delighted – can see where they were coming from (top wines are revered, huge buzz around them).
So bright, so polished, so Moorish! After the awesome bottles from Singlefile – and now this – move over Margaret River – Frankland river has something to say!
@balancewineco Wine Club standard? YES