Price: $7
Maker: Long Neck Wines, Republic of South Africa
Variety: Shiraz
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, artificial cork
Alcohol: 14.0%
Our Rating: 8 out of 10
Despite the supposed trend away from critter wines, Long Neck is offering a panoply of giraffe-labeled varietals. We tried Long Neck Shiraz 2003. Peppery spice dominates this wine, starting with the aroma. The flavor is also spicy, with a bit of plum and blackberry. There’s quite a bit of acidity in the finish. Overall, it’s not a bad Shiraz if your taste run toward the spicy end of the spectrum, though it doesn’t have the balance and fruit of some inexpensive Australian Shirazes.
Long Neck has an interesting background:
Long Neck Wines is the brainchild of three friends, John Cullis, Archie Cameron, and Duncan McEuen with strong South African bonds and a love of good wine. Duncan is the Company’s top nose. A wine boffin of note, he was one time head of the wine department at the Christie’s auction house, in London, and continues to tutor in wine tastings around the world and serve on several international wine committees.
We’ll no doubt give at least one other Long Neck varietal a try.