The 2006 Shiraz 9 was tasted from a barrel sample. It has been barrel-fermented in new French and American oak barriques and hogsheads where it has been aging for 14 months (with another 2 months to go prior to bottling). It delivers an alluring bouquet of pain grille, smoke, mocha, espresso, and blue fruits. This is followed by a full-bodied, personality-filled Shiraz with blueberry, blackberry liqueur, licorice, and a hint of chocolate emerging on the palate. Opulent, sweet, and lengthy, it will evolve for several years but can be enjoyed now and over the next 12-15 years. R Wines is a new company founded by importer and marketing genius, Dan Philips, along with co-owner, renowned winemaker, Chris Ringland. Winemakers for R Wines are Chris Ringland, Lisa Wetherell, Andrew Hercock, and John Hughes. It encompasses four familiar labels, Marquis Philips, 3 Rings, Roogle, and Bitch, along with 13 others created especially for R Wines. Needless to say, the packaging of these wines is amazingly creative but, more importantly, what is in the bottle consistently over-delivers from low-end to high-end.The Marquis Philips wines have established a six year track record of delivering a big bang for the buck. The wines are now made by a team put together by Dan Philips and Chris Ringland with absolutely no change in quality. Starting with the 2006 vintage, however, all of the fruit is sourced from McLaren Vale. The other change of note is that Merlot has been dropped from the program, primarily because of the difficulty of finding Merlot good enough to merit the M-P label.Importer: Dan Philips, The Grateful Palate, Oxnard, CA; (805) 278-9095