"(The 1996 and 1994 vintages were not labelled Eclipse but Grenache Shiraz. Earlier bottlings; 1991, 1990, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1978, 1977 and 1976 of this blend when Drew’s father David was the winemaker were known simply as ‘Burgundy’, which ceased for obvious reasons, with the 1991 vintage being the last labelled this way).Eclipse is a full bodied red suited to cellaring and is fashioned in a similar vein to the bigger reds from the Chateauneuf du Pape region of France. We recommend decanting at least half an hour before serving. Eclipse can be enjoyed as a young wine whilst purple and vigorous or cellared and enjoyed as a plummy, gentle older wine at around 10 years plus. We find most vintages of Eclipse go into an adolescent period at around 5 years, emerging at about 10 years as a mature wine.As a young wine from 1 to 4 years choose strongly flavoured dishes to match the intense ripe fruit flavours in the wine such as wild hare or duck, richly sauced casseroles or chargrilled steak. As an older wine choose similar dishes but with a little more subtlety like cassoulet or coq au vin as pork and chicken are quite subtle but rich flavours. In that sense old Eclipse is not dissimilar to Pinot Noir, both being sweetly fruited and highly perfumed with soft mature tannins."Noon Winery
