Tscharke Marananga Shiraz

A little while ago, I was offered the wine pictured above for an incredible price of significantly less than $20 per bottle. Damien Tscharke is a young, promising winemaker, and Marananga is arguably the sweet spot of the Barossa. I know that his vineyards in the area are mature. 2011 was a very wet vintage, so I thought maybe the wine will be a little bit thin, but it should do for a quaffer.

I should have done more homework. What I got was a total surprise. This is a 15% alcohol wine. The only way, in my opinion, this could have been achieved in this year is by reverse osmosis, where water is reduced from the liquid to improve must concentration, which also increases the alcohol level. It appears the fruit was also picked very late, as it tastes burnt and dead. The wine is very oaky, fruit and oak are not well integrated. This wine is badly made, trying to turn a poor natural outcome into something else, to then only resulting in something worse. It goes without saying that the wine tastes hot on the back palate and leaves an alcoholic after taste.

It is a shame that the label mentions Barossa Grounds, as this is the name of the worth while terroir project in the Barossa. I know a bit about terroir in the Barossa, and this wine has none of it.

Score: 80 or less/---