2006 Enchanted Path Shiraz-Cabernet
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While I wasn’t able to taste this on release, the 2006 Mollydooker Enchanted Path, a blend of 66% Shiraz and 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, is apparently aging beautifully. Showing youthful, semi-opaque purple color, it offers up complex aromas of smoked wild herbs, hung game, licorice, and spice-laden red and black fruits that flow to a full-bodied, seamless, and beautifully balanced palate that has a layered, rich mouth feel, and a blockbuster, heady finish. Very well done and drinking perfectly, with plenty of pure fruit to go with classic, meaty Syrah Characteristics, this isn’t going anywhere fast, and has another 5-8 years or more of longevity. It’s ripe and unabashedly exuberant, and the very slight headiness on the finish won’t be for everyone, but I think this will surprise people with how well it’s showing.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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Deep ruby. Ripe blackcurrant and candied cherry on the nose, with dill, dark chocolate and vanilla accents. Fleshy and sweet, offering vaguely syrupy dark berry flavors and a good lashing of pungent herbs. Became spicier with air and picked up musky cured tobacco qualities, finishing with soft tannins and a lingering sweet/sour character. I was able to detect some varietal cabernet sauvignon character in this wine while several others from this producer came across as overly confectionery.
The 2006 Shiraz (66%) – Cabernet Sauvignon (34%) “Enchanted Path” was made entirely from McLaren Vale fruit. Opaque purple-colored, the wine has a fragrant bouquet of pain grille, leather, smoked meat, game, blueberry, and blackberry. This is followed by a structured wine with intense, spicy black fruit flavors, full-body, and superb balance. It is still tightly wound and will benefit from 6-8 years of cellaring. This promising effort should drink well through 2030. Mollydooker (the Australian equivalent of “Southpaw”– both Sparky and Sarah Marquis are left-handed) is the label of the renowned winemaking team of Sparky and Sarah Marquis. This is their second vintage following the schism with The Grateful Palate and the end of their involvement in the hugely successful Marquis Philips project. Total case production is 72,000, down from the 120,000 cases produced under the Marquis Philips label. They have also set up their own importing company in the United States. Mollydooker has been divided into four tiers beginning with “The Lefty Series”. These five wines are line-priced at $20. Next up the ladder is “The Party Series” priced at $50 a bottle, followed by two wines comprising “The Love Series” priced at $80. At the top of the pyramid is one wine, “The Velvet Glove” Shiraz priced at $175. Importer: Mollydooker International, www.mollydookerwines.com.au