29 Jan 08 - Single Vineyard Whispering Hill Shiraz rated as best ever by John Jens

In the community newspaper, the Western Suburbs Weekly, John Jens was clearly impressed with the quality of Capel Vale wines, stating that the Single Vineyard Whispering Hill Shiraz is "one of the Great Southern's and Western Australia's best ever shiraz.". See below for the full text.

Capel Vale's Best Yet
By John Jens

CAPEL Vale, founded in 1974 by the Pratten family, is one of Western Australia's major older vineyards. However good the wines and reviews have been over the following decades they have never been as good as the current range.

The semillon sauvignon blancs, shiraz, cabernets and rieslings in particular are both of outstanding and appealing quality and style and they also offer outstanding value for money. The winery also continues to experiment with "cellar door only" trial batches of viognier, sangiovese and tempranillo (of which the 2005 tempranillo, 17.8 points, is the pick).

The Whispering Hill shiraz 2005 is both the best wine in the range and the best wine of any type that Capel Vale has produced.

This wine is also one of the Great Southern's and Western Australia's best ever shiraz. The fruit in this is almost McLaren Vale like in volume but remains supple, soft and generous. It has full flavours that are enveloped in the textured and beautifully crafted, quality oak tannins. There are no corners or edges in this wine's perfect balance.

This is a young wine that can already be put on the table with total confidence on the most auspicious of occasions - and that will also improve for 10 to 15 years if cellared correctly.
18.5 Pts RRP $49.95

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