Katnook Estate Prodigy ’03-Shiraz

Posted by winesleuth in Australia | 4 comments

The next day was Australia’s turn. The company I work for every now and then has winemakers come in and give us a masterclass.

Last week it was Katnook Estate who came in to give us a walk through their range.

Katnook Estate has 330 hectares in the heart of Coonawarra and is situated in one of the remotest wine regions in Australia as well as the world. They’ve been producing wines for over 25 years from the rich red soil known as terra rosa. Although Coonawarra is best known for it’s cabernets, Wayne Stehbens,

the winemaker, has branched out and wants to show just how the terra rosa of Coonawarra can produce not only world class cabs but also world class shiraz, as they call syrah in OZ.

To that end, he has produced a 100% shiraz, The Prodigy. The best vintages to date have been the  ’97 and the ’03. We had the opportunity to taste the ’03. Wayne has been the winemaker for Katnook for over 30 years and his years of experience in dealing with the land of Coonawarra really shows with the Prodigy ’03.

100% shiraz, matured 50/50 in French oak and American oak, this is an elegant monster. Opening with a perfumed nose of licorice, spice, aniseed and fennel then seguing into black fruit aromas with a dash of black pepper in the balance. Full bodied and supple, there were plenty of black fruits as a backdrop to the licorice, leather and general spiciness of the wine along with a roasted coffee bean finish.  This is a fabulous wine to sit and sip, although the alcohol level was 14% it didn’t seem like it. An excellent, well balanced offering from Down Under.

Afterward, we all headed down to the pub with Wayne and Simon Hill, the rep, for a couple more drinks- all in a days work.