Tait Wines The Wild Ride Barossa Valley Red Blend 2012: Dark ruby color; cherry, raspberry nose; plenty of fruit action on the palate;
cherry, blackberry, raspberry, licorice, spice, blackcurrant tang. Aussie version of GSM: grenache, shiraz, mataro (they only share the grenache ingredient and the shiraz is bulk of the blend); this is fuller and more robustly assertive than the Rhône version and rings in at 15.5% alcohol. Big, rich, broad, but it holds together, does not get too heavy, nicely avoids over-ripe fruitiness; it even deftly contains the alcohol heat, a nice feat. Tait Wines trace roots to Giovanni Tait, an Italian immigrant (1957) and master cooper in the Barossa Valley; in his later years, Giovanni founded Tait Wines in association with his sons. Their mission was to craft wines with depth, flavor, and taste. This effort achieves the goal at a very nice price. $18-23 