The passing of time for me is often highlighted by the unexpected arrival of young wines onto the market, and here we have a 2006 model of Carrick from Central Otago New Zealand. This is their second label, by its very design ( unravelled) it is meant to be all about up front fruit and primary flavours. Primary basically means that they are very fresh smelling flavours that have not changed very much from when the wine was put into tanks for fermentation. It has a very sweet smell, I know everyone will say that you can't smell sugar, but it smells like something that reminds me of sweetness, jam for instance. Now I have to say that it isn't jammy though.  It also has what some people describe as "crunchy fruit", a nice little wine word for a little green. This mainly comes across as the tannins assert themselves on the finish and they do have a raspy quality and that is where that flavour comes from. There are smells of rose petal and flavours of red cherries, a simple wine by design, which is very fresh and lively with good acidty. A simple plate of meats and roasted vegetables or something a little spicy perhaps, it can take it, and you can buy it for about $33 a bottle.
 

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