Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz-Cabernet

Wine: Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz-Cabernet.

Grapes: Shiraz (60 percent), cabernet sauvignon (40 percent)

Region: South Australia

Vintage: 2005

Price: $9.99

In the glass: Wolf Blass blended wine is a deep opaque inky-red color with a solid garnet-red core going out into a clean crimson rim definition with high viscosity.

On the nose: There are opulent crushed black fruits, pungent blackberry jam, blueberry pie, raspberry sorbet, soft oak and vanilla references, spice box, wet tobacco, minerals and alcohol elements, with a hint of underlying anise and licorice root.

On the palate: Wolf Blass is a huge mouthful of bold, spice-laden, slightly chewy wine with loads of crushed black currants, mint leaf, chewing tobacco, blackberry jam, boysenberry juice, vanilla and mineral elements, as well as soft oak references. The midpalate is incredibly well-balanced with a great backbone, showing beautifully restrained tannins, soft black fruit intermixed with oak, and then even amounts of acidity and alcohol. The finish is what can be expected: tremendous, supple and lengthy on the palate with a touch of licorice at the end. It is an overachieving wine that transcends its pricing category.

Odds and ends: It has been almost a year since I reviewed an Australian wine. I was beginning to tire of the formulaic and overly sweet fruit-forward wines made Down Under. Wolf Blass represents the classic Australian blended wine, made by one of the country's wine pioneers. The founder, Wolfgang (Wolf) Blass, arrived in Australia in the mid-'60s as a young German winemaker out to make great wines in the New World. By the '70s, Blass had revolutionized the way wine was made in Australia by aging the wines in French and American oak barrels. Not only is Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz-Cabernet one of the classics, but is available for less than $10. Drink it now through 2012, and enjoy it with a juicy medium-rare hamburger.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.