PV Tasting Notes
The 2003 Shiraz/Viognier offers an exotic, flamboyant nose of dark raspberry, blackberries, sassafras, black pepper, floral honey and flowers along with supersweet berry and cassis flavours, wonderful intensity, richness, fruit, and glycerine. The long, sweet finish betrays no rough edges, a real fruit bomb, but with spice notes adding intrigue and style.
Independent Review87 points – Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
The 2003 Shiraz/Viognier offers an exotic marmalade and black currant-scented nose, medium body, no hard edges, plenty of fruit, little oak, and a lovely finish. This screw cap-finished offering reveals good flavour, an up-front, fruity personality, and limited aging potential.
A beautiful Côte Rôtie look-alike, cries out for roast veal or rare roast beef, will also suit slow roasted meats, gourmet sausages, char grilled lamb cutlets, pumpkin and sage gnocchi and aged parmesan cheese.
Phil Sexton made his first fortune as a pioneer micro brewer creating the cult beer “little creatures”. He then invested a substantial part of that fortune in establishing the ultra premium Margaret River winery Devils Lair which he sold to Southcorp in 1996. Earlier that year he had purchased a hillside property less than a kilometre away from Coldstream hills and sharing the same geological structure and aspect. He has established Giant Steps, a striking and substantial vineyard comprising almost 34 hectares ranging from 400 feet to 1200 feet above sea level. Innocent Bystander is their second label offering top flight quality at a fraction of the cost of their main line products.