There's nothing restrained about this McLaren Vale Shiraz. With a gorgeous deep violet colour it brings big-time aromas of cassis, black pepper, and smoke, with ripe dark cherry and sweet black plum, as well as graphite, a touch of resin, and an odd intermittent bretty note. It's quite thick in the mouth, at least until the bitterness of the finish, and it's certainly very juicy, but it lacks structure and there's not nearly enough acidity to cut through the fatty fruitiness of the whole thing, and so it comes across like overripe alcoholic grape juice. Even at the price, a disappointment.