2007 Onix Classic

Ok ok… So when I said I got dragged out a while back for a “good” Australian wine that wasn’t exactly accurate. Truth be told, I was lured out to New Heights with the promise of two interesting wines. The first being the aforementioned Cat amongst the pigeons, and the second, being the topic of this particular missive.

So we actually had the Onix a while back, and never really got around to reviewing it. Sadly my notes on the original tasting were lost when I decided to erase the notes on my blackberry to make room for directions for a thousand mile ride in the rain (of course at the time I didn’t know it was going to rain, but that’s neither here nor there). That being said, I couldn’t in all good conscience review the wine without trying it again. That gets us to snag #1.

Snag #1 New Heights has Gin….lots of it. We went back, I tried it again and got derailed by cocktails. Win some; lose some…that’s my motto, and hell who isn’t willing to try a third time. And this, dear reader, is where we ran into snag #2.

Snag #2 nobody carries it. Now if my gin soaked memories served me correctly, it was pretty good and I want to take a crack at it while at the keyboard so that I could transcribe its loveliness into prose so I would just pop down to the store and grab a bottle and review it again (in the name of science of course). The problem with that being, we couldn’t really find it anywhere locally. That is, of course, until Kerri’s brother completely randomly found it and bought it for her as a thank you gift for babysitting.

So bottle in fridge, it was time for a reckoning. Well…a reckoning less in the OK Corral kind of way and more in a, hey let's have some wine!

So it’s a Garnacha and Carinena blend, which in my book would bode well. Pulling it out of the fridge and pouring a glass brings you a wine that is surprisingly purple, and I wasn’t really ready for that. Swirling it around in proper hoity toity fashion gives off a somewhat fruitier nose than I was I was expecting. Color me unimpressed. Right about then I was wondering what I saw in it the first two times that had me coming back for thirds. I needed to think about this and take its full measure in, there had to have been something to it but I wasn’t getting it from a sippy sip.

After pouring a glass and relaxing, letting it open up if you will, I am now in firm belief that my wine fridge is just too cold. It was free, and the temp knob doesn’t really work, and I am thinking 55 is just too cold (its stuck there). So warmed up and opened up, here is what I thought (Yes I know it took 500 words to get to the wine, but honestly its more entertaining this way and you didn’t really have anything better to do).

It's old world, first and foremost. That fruit sensation and nose declines greatly once it opens up, and I am sure if I were a true wine snob, I might actually describe it as blossoming, but since I’m not, I won't. The fact remains however that this wine does well with some time and some air. So much so, that I now recall why I am having it for the third time. Why you say? Simply put, this wine doesn’t suck. I am going to put it on my list of wines that everyone should try at least once. I wont say go out and buy a case, but seriously think about having a romp through the hills of Priorat (yes its hilly there, and yes I did look that up just to make that joke work). Beyond that, I’d like to see this wine again in say 5 or so years (or maybe find a bottle from say 2000-2004) I suspect with a little age, it might go from “ok” to love in a bottle.

We had it with no pairings any time we drank it, but I can see it with a big chunk of Manchego and a pile of Chorizo.