Previous Vintages Tasting NotesWine Advocate 93 points for 2003 vintage
I ended up with four pages of notes on this wine when we tasted it at the store. Unheard of- but it's soooo good.
Starting off, the wine has an opaque, dark ruby color. Not quite as dark as the 2003 vintage. Immediately after opening (and this is a young wine) the scent filled the air. Crushed fresh fruit, black cherry, raspberry, black currant, fresh marionberry, a bit of fresh strawberry and hints of fresh saddle leather and just a smidge of toast make up the initial scent impression. And under all the scent elements, that Shea Vineyard characteristic, a dark violet floral perfume.
Flavors are bold and clearly still young, with lots of room for even more complexity. Big black cherry and berry fruit, sweet cherries and plum, black currant, and that Shea undercurrent of dark violets persisted in the flavor as well as the scent.
The finish is quite long, and the tannins are very fine, present in good balance for cellaring purposes but not obtrusive. In the finish there are pleasant notes of vanilla, a tiny bit of spice, cedar, and some barrel toast, around which the dark violet perfume and dried rose petal flavors circle.
For customers who enjoyed the Shea Wine Cellars Block 23, now sold out, here is a similar offering with the same forward fruit and violets in the initial impression. The midpalate of the St Innocent Shea is a bit more delicate than the Block 23, with more transparency in the layers of flavors, and lots of spicy cherry and cola in the midpalate. Throughout the impression of the St Innocent, the sweetness of the fruit is balanced by a fresh, uplifting acidity enmeshed with black raspberry.
The St Innocent Shea 04 complements sweet meat entrees such as lamb chops, fillet, and grilled salmon When served young, it's best to decant and allow the wine to breathe for several hours before drinking. The wine is drinkable now and will benefit from aging up to 8 years.
Harvested at 1.9 tons/acre, destemmed grapes were fermented in two small tanks after a few days of cold maceration. The wine aged for 16 months in 41% new French oakbarrels and was bottled after a light gelatin fining.
