Friday, March 11, 2016

HazyBlur The Baroota Shiraz pizza and artisan cheeses


HazyBlur The Baroota South Australia Shiraz 2006 w/ pizza and artisan cheeses

Hosting work colleague Leslie for casual mid-week wine tasting with a collection of artisan cheeses, Linda prepared a pizza and I pulled from the cellar one of her favorites, hazyblur, a big forward fruity Aussie Shiraz.

We love this label and pick it up whenever we find it due to its limited availability in our market. We picked up the whole stock of this release and we're still savoring the remains of about a half case of the lot.

Hazyblur Wines is a small boutique winery established in 1998 by Ross and Robyne Trimboli. Ross's winemaking started watching his father, an Italian immigrant to Australia, make an annual batch of wine using a basket press and rubber boots.

Ross began experimenting, honing his own winemaking techinques, making batches of wine with friends and set out to produce his own wines after completing a winemaking course in 1996.

Gotta love those Aussie's sense of humour in naming and branding ... hazyblur referring to the mirage effect of the heat waves rising off the vineyards in the midday sun that Ross observed returning from a wine tasting trip through Coonawarra, driving in a car without air-conditioning at the end of a long hot day.

This was awesome with the eighteen year aged cheddar and gouda, Brie with roasted almonds and honey, as well as the pizza.

Consistent with earlier tasting notes, "Dark inky color, big, firm and full bodied, rich thick tongue coating, blueberry compote with super ripe raisin fig fruits, hints of cedar, pepper, violets, and blueberry fruit tones. This is a bit too ripe and raisiny for my tastes but the bride likes it this way - and so does Wine Advocate who gives it a 91."

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=730925

http://hazyblurwines.com.au/