Dan's Pick of the Week, interval 1

I've been so neglectful.

I hope this post acts as the necessary springboard to some actual, you know, blogging on this blog. I'll try to get a post up once a week that will highlight a wine (or three) or beer (or...you get it) in the shop. It will always be something that we aren't pouring during our weekly tasting, but aside from that small exception, it could be anything.

So, without further ado, we'll kick it off with something a few of our regulars (as well as some irregulars) have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on...

Back in the shop for the first time in almost a year is a selection of wines from Mollydooker, the Australian winery famous for some of the most luscious, fruit-filled wines on the planet. The wines are extremely limited, so I get a small allocation each year. When the wines are gone from the shop, that's it. I can't order any more. Some years, there are only a couple of wines available, while in others I can get a little bit of each wine they make. Last year was especially tough, with only two bottlings from the release of the 2008 red wines available. 2009 was an easier vintage for the Mollydooker team, so we were able to secure a broader range of their wines, including a couple cases of one cult object that wasn't produced the previous year.

These are not wines for those of you who crave small scale, elegance, refinement and structure. These are pure, hedonistic expressions of fruit. Here they are:

Cabernet Sauvignon, "The Maitre

D' ", $28 A classic Aussie Cab with pure varietal aromas and a plush, rich, fruit-driven palate. (Limited.)

Shiraz, "The Boxer", $28 Explosive and mouthfilling. This is the archetypal Australian Shiraz, loaded with blue fruit, black pepper and tar.

(Extremely limited.)

Shiraz, "Blue Eyed Boy", $50 The

aforementioned cult object. Robert

Parker's Wine Advocate has raved about this wine for years. The last two vintages (the most recent tasted) have been granted "classic" status with ratings of 96 points out of 100 for the 2006 and 95 points for the 2007. This is a more balanced wine than "The Boxer", adding an extremely fine-grained structure to the typical Aussie hedonism. This is delicious now, but is the one wine here that is truly age-worthy. (Limited.)