Maybe we’re getting old. Maybe we’re mellowing in our dotage. Maybe a glass or two of Greg Norman Estates Australian Shiraz has put us in a reflective, relaxed, thoughtful mood. But we just can’t bring ourselves to churn out the cheap, easy jokes that would fill this space in no time. No golf puns. No shark jokes. (OK, one shark joke.) Nothing about Crocodile Dundee or Men at Work or wallabies. Just plain talk about these two bottles from Greg Norman Estates.

The 2001 Padthaway Reserve Shiraz is a time capsule in a bottle. When these grapes sprung from the rich red earth of South Australia, John Howard was running for a third term, the Brisbane Lions were storming their way to triumph in the Grand Final, and Powderfinger’s album Odyssey Number Five was rocking the ears of Antipodean youth. (At least, that’s what Wikipedia tells us. It’s not like we were there at the time.) Take care with it, and its supple, elegant dark fruit flavors will outlive the Rudd administration.

Don’t feel obliged to be nice to the 2002 Limestome Coast Reserve Shiraz just because it came a long way to get here. For one thing, this rich, deep red is not that sensitive. For another, once you get a taste of its full-bodied, sophisticated dark plum and blackberry flavors, pitying it will be the last thing on your mind. And how can you not love a wine whose fruit was grown in places with names like Coonawarra, Wrattonbully, and Padthaway?

Fortunately, you don’t have to be able to pronounce those names to drink these wines. While our cousins down under get ready for winter, these bottles of Shiraz will be the perfect accompaniment to your bar-b-q, cookout, or barbie. It reminds us of the time that Russell Crowe and INXS joined us on the links for eighteen holes of- oh, right, we said we weren’t going to do that.

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