13 October 2003

2000 Zinfandel Nepenthe, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
£15.50, Vin du Van

No. 1 in this year's tasting, and a great start to our new list of wines of the week. These will now be archived so that you can refer back to them throughout the coming year.

This wine is quite simply a wonderful, original, irresistible mouthful of Aussie red. I call it Aussie red, but they've used the great Californian grape, Zinfandel, to make it. Now, Zinfandel needs heat, and the Adelaide Hills are about the coolest, dampest place in South Australia, so I have no idea how they managed to ripen the grapes. But they did. They picked on 2 May (that's like 2 November up here) and produced a whopping 15.5% alcohol beautiful beast, rich with sultana and date sweetness, splashed with blackberry juice and smothered in custard and cream. The Californians will never forgive them.

Taken from Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide 2003

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