A 2009 Witchmount shiraz

A number of years ago I went to a wine tasting evening arranged by my brother at his local wine store. They had invited the winemaker over from Witchmount to speak about shiraz in general and also tell us about his pretty decent version.

This was around the time Witchmount had become popular after winning the Syrah du Monde international wine competition held in France for the world's best syrah. This is what we prefer to call shiraz and I prefer in its purest form, I never appreciated cab/shiraz blends or even worse shiraz/cabernet blends, a peppery shiraz is still my favourity.

Whilst it was the 2004 vintage that won the competition, I was able to get hold of the 2009 vintage. I was pretty happy, I was able to get a taste of what was considered the world's best shiraz. I have to admit the French style is softer and far different to the Australian style so I tasted this vintage with a degree of trepidation.

Apparently, the black label denotes full bodied, although I feel this is a medium bodied wine and not full bodied as I am used to. That being said, I like to try new styles and a medium-bodied wine suits me some days, the judges know what is a good shiraz based on blind testing, now it is time for me to appreciate it.