Wolf Blass Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 – Exclusive to ALDI

Ah, you have to love the keen sense of tradition alive and well in this wine.

First, it’s all about blending. That is so Wolf Blass. The man may no longer be calling the shots at the company that takes his name, but it remains true to what he loved best and he was, above all, a master blender.

Take two grape varieties – the quintessential Aussie red blend – and three South Australian wine regions, and there you have the ingredients for a Blass red if ever there was one.

This one is new and made as an Aldi exclusive. The price – $15 – is super sharp. Value here is high.

Brilliant, dark purple in colour. It opens with lifted florals and dense fruit aromas high in cassis, black cherry, woodsmoke, anise and spice.

You could have a lot of fun trying to discern what particular grapes and flavours herald from the three regions represented – McLaren Vale, the Barossa and the Adelaide Hills – but flavours are generous, the perfect foil for the next Blass must-have – oak.

Yes, that vanilla toastiness and dry, graphite (aka pencil shavings) you can taste, providing structure through the chalky tannins, that’s oak. Blass was a big believer in red wine needing oak. “No wood, no good,” was a common refrain.

Together with the generosity of fruit, the spice, the chocolatey notes, the leafy, herbal thread that runs the length of the palate and, yes, the well stated but integrated oak component, you get a sense of unspoken power in this wine. Very Blass-like.

And for a $15 red that’s pretty amazing. On Sale April 14 2021.