Oliverhill Winery Jimmy Section Shiraz

The 2006 Shiraz “Jimmy Section” is slightly muted aromatically but with coaxing aromas of pain grille, tar, blueberry, and blackberry emerge. This leads to a full-bodied wine with gobs of spicy black fruits, ripe flavors, and for a wine of this size, surprising elegance. Give it 4–6 years in the cellar and drink it through 2027.

Inky ruby. Strikingly aromatic nose displays alluring ripe dark berry and spice elements, along with fresh flowers and minerals. Lush, deeply concentrated blackberry and mulberry flavors offer compelling sweetness and a suave, velvety texture. Where are the tannins? Finishes with very impressive palate-staining persistence.

The 2006 Jimmy Section is made in a rich, syrupy style, but does it have enough structure to improve with age? The dense blackberry and blueberry fruit carries its 15.5% alcohol well — at least for the moment — and there are some attractive peppery, herbal complexities that make for interesting drinking right now, so why wait?

This is a wine of real personality. Smooth, with a winning reticence to the polished blueberry and plum flavors, delicately shaded with loamy, leafy notes. The finish keeps sailing on. Shiraz. Best from 2009 through 2016.

A delicious Shiraz from the McLaren Vale in Australia, heightened with deep luscious, velvety fruit. A mélange of ripe, concentrated mulberries, blackberries and blueberries hosts sweet, brown allspice flavors that lay full and rich on the palate, persisting with a long, seductively enchanting finish. Enjoy it by itself on a cool evening or with your favorite cut of beef or lamb.

Some wines really just do not need staff reviews — I should just sit back and let the accolades speak for themselves! The Jimmy Section Shiraz is the signature wine of Oliverhill, premium quality and limited production, made from grapes from a single vineyard in the McLaren Vale. Incredibly lush, extracted and substantial; packed to the brim with ripe blueberry, black cherry, black currant, chocolate and white pepper. Explosive and juicy, but with the balance and structure to last for years. It’s the kind of exceptional, elegant wine you can never go wrong in serving to out-of-town guests or business associates, but I find it to be the best pick-me-up after a long, terrible day. You’ll always be happy after a glass of this wine!