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Sunday, February 10, 2019

Mitolo GAM McLaren Vale Shiraz

Mitolo GAM McLaren Vale Shiraz

For relaxed evening watching Netflix after a grueling week of travel, we pulled this vintage Aussie McLaren Vale Shiraz to enjoy with artisan cheeses and beef tenderloin sandwiches.

This wine is from the legendary Australian winemaker Ben Glaetzer. It is named GAM after the Mitolos’ children Gemma, Alex and Marco, and was his first wine made, back in 2000.

Mitolo G.A.M. McLaren Vale Shiraz 2004

At fourteen years, I was expecting this to be starting to turn to a raisin fig profile with the aged fruit starting to turn to leathery earth tones, as some of the other McLaren Vales do such as Rosemount Balmoral and others. Alas, while this may be at or near its peak of its drinking window, it most likely will not improve any further with aging. It probably has started to 'turn' but the accent was to a cross between floral and cigar box - a very interesting and delightful tone.

Dark blackish garnet colored, medium full bodied, the black berry and black raspberry and blue fruits were punctuated by notes of cigar box, roasted coffee and hints of floral. It was a nice accompaniment to creamy Harvarti and sharper Bellavitano cheeses, and the beef tenderloin on toast points. While there is not a hurry to drink up, I would say this will diminish here forward with the fruits giving way to the non-fruit tones of cigar, leather and earth.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=80874


Jeb Dunnuck of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate gave this 97 points back in 2010 when he noted, "Given where the ’03 is right now and how much younger this wine seems, it could have a long life ahead of it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this still going strong in another 10 to 12 years. Impressive!" Back in 2005, he wrote, "It should drink well for 15 years". He was right both times. Both times they gave it 97 points. 

James Halladay gave this 94 points and Wine Enthusiast gave it 92 points.

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