Table of Contents
The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 is an Australian Red wine you should be able to find in the $12 range. In the early 2000s value-priced Aussie Shiraz wines were the rage and Woop Woop was always a bang-for-the-buck bargain. Here is a link to a write-up on the 2013 vintage, the last time we featured this wine.
The worldwide economic meltdown of 2008 was not kind to Australian wine. Australia was not as hard hit as other countries, their dollar remained strong. As a result, a wine that sold for $12 became $18 overnight. That meant sales slowed to a crawl, importers went bankrupt and the whole Australian wine industry took a hit. Shiraz/Syrah wines which were red hot became yesterday’s news.
The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 had been winemakers Ben Riggs’s brand, but somewhere in the fallout in the Aussie wine industry, he lost control. Back in those days there seemed to be a competition among wineries as to who could make the boldest, spiciest Shiraz and still have some sort of balance. Those wines were loads of fun, but they were not for everyone.
Ben Riggs is back as the winemaker for Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 and he reconsidered what Woop Woop should be (Woop Woop is slang for the middle of nowhere). Instead of being bigger and bolder, this Shiraz is light to medium-bodied with moderate alcohol content, 13.5%.
This Shiraz is mostly fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, but about 10% was aged in American oak barrels. American oak has a wider grain than French oak, so little can go a long way.
Most of the grapes came from the Riverland growing region of South Australia, which is a little north and west of Adelaide. It is a large grape-growing region with over 1000 growers.
The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a dark raspberry jam red with black highlights. The nose is ripe blackberry, cherry hard candy, black pepper, interesting spice, a little herb, meat cooking on the grill, and blueberry. The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 starts smooth and rich and then that famous Shiraz spice kicks in.
This Shiraz tastes like black cherry, black pepper, black licorice, and ripe plum. The mid-palate shows exotic spice, extracted blackberry, slightly rough-edged tannins, and a late hit of cooling blueberry. This is a lively good tasting Shiraz.
The Summary
- The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 after all these years is still a bang-for-the-buck wine.
- I have not been too impressed with some of the recent Australian Shiraz value-priced wines, they did not seem to match the Shiraz of 10 to 15 years ago.
- The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 was good then and it is good now.
