Tasted quickly today: both seemed hot, disjointed and lacking the over-the-top fruit to cover compared to previous vintages.

The price is up 20% (now $12.50) and I suspect production has grown dramatically.

I am not impressed.

mt-i only tasted the shiraz, but that was my impression. not my rating on the wine was ?.

I tried the Merlot, Sarah's, Cab and Shiraz recently....personally, I thought they all were unimpressive and disappointing.

Careful, MudPuppy, you probably have a lot of that stuff to sell to unsuspecting customers!

most people will buy it just based on pricing.

Fortunately, I still have a few bottles of the 01 and 02 to tide me over.
IIRC, 2004 is supposed to be a very good year in Aussieland.

.... and another thing, for about $8, there's always Paringa!!!

i'm waiting for the paringa myself. it should be in soon if it is not here already.

I always enjoyed the Paringa better than the MP wines. Thanks for the reminder, posting buddies.

I ordered a 6-bottle mix of the Shiraz, Sarah's and Cab... now I am sorry I did. Oh well.

Brad... so you're out what? $90? Who knows. These may come together in time.
You can also spring them on unsuspecting non-winos!!

I feel the 03 Shiraz is much better than indicated above. It's more like the 00 release of MP Shiraz. Much easier to drink now than the 02 or 01 was upon release. I still think its a good bottle of shiraz for the money. Paid $13.99 each.

Budman, your right. I just hate to hear lackluster comments about wine I haven't even received yet. No big deal... I will try it and form my own opinion.

Name: Marquis Philips Sarah's Blend
Vintage: 2003

Country: Australia
Region:

Purchased at: Wine Seller
Cost: $14.44

Color: Dark purple
Nose: Full of black fruit
Palette: Still very hot after decanting 3 hours. Big blackberries and blueberry jam. Tasty, but unbalanced.

Comments: Not generally my style, but I enjoyed it more than the straight Shiraz. The blend cuts into some of the pie-in-the-face quality of most lower-end Shiraz. Certainly drinkable, decent BBQ wine, big hit with the non-winos. Still a good QPR.

JuggerRating: 87 pts

i drank the 03 sarah's last night much better than the straight shiraz. nowhere near as hot. did not kill the food. me88

I think I paid $16 in Philly. Stupidly left it in the boot/trunk on Thursday as I was leaving that day. As Monday and Tuesday had been standard English Summer weather it didn't seem too stupid until I returned to the pizza oven that was the hire car. Both this and the Killerby (yup - bought some) were a bit warm with this leaking slightly (bum).

Decided to bite the bullet adn opened it last night knowing that it would not last the distance after that. It was a little cooked but not as bad as it could have been. Plenty of black fruit but a little one-dimensional, actually worked better cooler and I have some left to try chilled tonight! Potentially, could have been a good wine but I may never know now.

Retasted the '03 MP Shiraz in a more relaxed environment.

Perhaps this wine has settled down from the trip because it is tasting fruitier and less hot. It is not as concentrated as previous vintages but many will still find it a reasonable (albeit alcohol-dominated) QPR.

Deserves a mid 80's score.

Had another bottle of the regular Shiraz. It was a little less hot and aggressive. Considerable sediment in the bottle.