Tim Adams, The Aberfeldy 1995 (Magnum)

Rhone Ranger fans and lovers of Rhone Valley wines will be immensely impressed with what Tim Adams has accomplished with his new releases. The limited production Shiraz Aberfeldy (under 100 cases produced) emerges from an ancient, head-pruned vineyard planted in 1904. The wine is aged for 22 months in 100% new American oak casks before bottling. It is a wine of enormous richness, power, glycerin, and impact. The 1995 coats the palate with a viscous display of minty eucalyptus and cassis-like flavors. This opaque purple-colored, thick, heavy, unevolved, full-bodied, sumo-wrestler of a wine is splendidly concentrated and dense. In spite of being aged in 100% new oak, the wine gives little evidence of toasty new wood, a tribute to the extraordinary concentration of fruit, which has soaked up the wood. It should drink well for 15 years. Sadly, only 50 cases of this wine made it to America's shores, but that is slightly over half of the winery's total production!

WA 93