Wine from Brandon, with Hart, QH, Jeff, Charmaine, GY, BSG, Maisy and KJ at Liu Fu Shi Fang Cai private dining.

HEHE I’ve been waiting to try this for a long time. I don’t enjoy Syrah/Shiraz because they are always over oaked and just fucking jammy. So imagine my surprise when Brandon of all people WhatsApp’s me to recommend me a cali Shiraz. Let’s just say there was a lot of confusion on my part. I did end up buying into it, and convincing the Raffles Block to grab a few bottles with me.

In the glass, this is a DARK wine. Full bodied.
On the nose off the bottle, giant waft of vanilla/caramel, dark currants. Just dark and rich. On the exhale, the usual spicy notes: pepper and cinnamon. My first thought was, ok, still a lot of oak extraction here, but hey doesn’t smell like some over reduced jam, and the spice was actually very pleasantly balanced.

On the palate, my first thought was fuck that’s a lot of alcohol. Oof. That was a lot. Checked with Brandon and this was indeed a 14.5%. That, I didn’t quite like.
Grippy tannins, very full bodied but didn’t weigh on the tongue thanks to its medium+ acidity. Very long and delicious finish. And best of all, none of that shitty prickly spiciness on the finish.

But here’s the kicker: let this wine aerate. A lot. Pop it in a decanter and just swirl it. It took a while, but with enough time in the glass, there was an absolutely huge development: that giant cloud of vanilla got tamed, and came into a nice balance with the spices, dark and even red fruit layers, wood.

I’m relieved – I found myself really really enjoying this. The alcohol level is still something that bugs me a little but I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind it. That said, would wanna re-do this with a smaller group so that I can have more to taste, and with way more aeration.