Mountain X is the love child of The Wine Front publishers Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh and made by Rhys Eather at Meerea Park. Both the 2006 and 2007 vintages are available (very limited) on the WineStar website site and represent a wonderful snapshot of traditional Hunter Shiraz for $30 per bottle. Only a few barrels of each vintage is made so we are talking less than 150 dozen total! In 2008, the decision was made not to release a wine out of the Hunter Valley due to such a poor vintage in those parts but given the brilliance of the 2008 in Canberra, a Mountain X Canberra Shiraz 2008 was made with the same retail price in mind.

Tasted blind, Mike Bennie, whom it must be pointed out is a Wine Front colleague, had this to say about the wine when he tasted it blind; "lovely perfume here; floral, exotic and pure fruit cohabiting. Wild red berry and undergrowth, some lifted sweet mocha/choc and whiff of earth. Palate is well framed with feathery/dusty tannin but shows depth of red berry flavour again. Brambly, briar lick of briny acidity. Feels fresh but has a charismatic funk and enjoy that medium weight, cool appeal. Should do cellar time too. Finely wrought. 93-94 Points".

And my take? As with most wines we taste, all are opened in the morning and looked at throughout the day. Frankly, this looked its best the following day when the structure came together, and the spice and hints of stalk began to integrate with the clean and juicy fruit flavours but it never lost its character. There is a huge bite of acidity and persistent tannins and I can't help but think it has a long life ahead of it. Don't touch this for five years and I suspect the second bottle may be consumed years after that. Now – 2018+; Quality: Excellent; BW; WineStar© July 2011