Wine Advisor
Standish, The Relic Shiraz-Viognier 2006
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Jay S Miller
The 2006 Shiraz (97%)-Viognier (3%) The Relic was also sourced from 98-year-old vines with yields of 0.5 tons per acre. It spent 24 months in seasoned French oak. Deep crimson-colored, it offers up a fragrant perfume of smoke, violets, Asian spices, black cherry, and wild blueberry. On the palate this medium-bodied, elegant Shiraz has a silky texture, luscious fruit, and impeccable balance. Give this very lengthy effort 2-3 years of additional cellaring and drink it from 2010 to 2018. Dan Standish, who started his namesake winery in 1999, was once a winemaker at Torbreck and, like Dave Powell, is a fan of Rhone wines. Importer: Ben Hammerschlag, Epicurean Wines, Seattle, WA; tel. (206) 923-1376
About the Producer
The Standish Wine Company is located in Lyndoch, South Australia, in the Barossa wine region. Founded in 1999, the winery is already one of the outstanding wineries in the region despite its short history. Standish Wines was founded by Dan Standish. Mr Standish is an experienced winemaker who has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and has worked as a winemaker in California's Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Spain's La Rioja and France's Rhone Valley. In 1999, he inherited from his parents a vineyard in the Barossa Valley with typical sandy and clay soils and nearly 100 year old Syrah vines. Influenced by the style of wines from the Rhone Valley in France, Mr Standish considers this vineyard a gift from nature and it is the winery's mission to produce wines that express the character of the terroir. The grapes are harvested by hand, carefully brushed and destemmed, then fermented in wild yeasts in fermenters and aged for 30 months in 15% French oak barrels. Each wine is vinified for a minimum of two years before it can be sold, is neither filtered nor clarified before bottling, and only those wines of outstanding quality are labelled Standish. The estate's Syrahs are aromatic, full-bodied and sweet, with intense earthy and spicy flavours. In the past, the wines were only available for export or online orders, but now they are also available in small quantities to the national premium wine shops.
