The Shoofly Shiraz 2015 is sourced from select vineyards located in the McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, and Wrattonbully wine regions of South Australia. Shoofly is one of Ben Riggs wines, he has been a successful winemaker in Australia for a long time and CWF has featured 4 or 5 vintages of his Woop Woop Shiraz (always a solid bang for the buck wine) on this website. Whereas Woop Woop is more of a BBQ, hey let’s get together and have a party wine, the Shoofly is designed to show-off some of the quality vineyards in South Australia. When winemakers source grapes from vineyards it usually is a friend helping a friend type of deal. That guy you used to work with 5 years ago is now over at this other place and he knows a great grower who has grapes available and wants to hook the 2 of you up. It really is this model and not lawyers talking to accountants, much of world-wide wine is controlled by large corporations, but the vineyard to the winery is still likely to be friends networking. This Shiraz is aged in French oak for 10 months, they specified “seasoned” oak, meaning the inside of the barrels were toasted (by flame) to the winemakers specifications, different levels of toasted wood impart specific flavors into the wine. The alcohol content is a not shy, 14.5%.
The color is an opaque raspberry jam red with black highlights. The nose is has those seasoned oak aromas of mocha, pepper, toasted vanilla, and fudge, along with blackberry, herbal tea, and exotic spice. This is a bold, but balanced Shiraz, rich flavors and sharp slaps of spice, but somehow refined. It tastes of a mix of rich blackberry and slightly sweet blueberry, a little cola (not carbonated), bold spice, vanilla, and plum. The mid-palate offers herbs, tart cranberry, blood orange, and a touch of strawberries in cream. The tannins stay out-of-the-way (I rarely find a wine with obvious tannins anymore) and the acidity gives the wine enough structure to allow the flavors to unfold. The finish mirrors the body of the wine and never goes away.
The Shoofly Shiraz 2015 sure has a lot of flavor and aromas, every time I bring the glass to me lips I get reintroduced to its complicated and interesting nose. This is a wine that lists for $14 and I found it in Chicago for a few cents under $9 and that makes the Shoofly a seriously solid Shiraz at a bargain price. One thing about value priced wine is they are not always particularly complicated, they might taste great, but they can be one trick ponies. The Shoofly Shiraz and challenging aromas, complicated flavors, and the thing that is missing in many value priced wine, personality, and to top it off it was 9 bucks on sale. The flavors and the aromas might not be for everybody, but if you can dig it, this Shiraz is a treat.
