With so many under-ripe, aggressively vegetal, astringent, bitter, or just plain boring Sauvignons – many selling for well more than twice the price – giving a wonderful grape a bad rap, this offering from Two Oceans should be taken by most other producers world wide as an embarrassment and a challenge. I give the Two Oceans’ 2008 Shiraz a lower mark than last year’s rendition solely because of a slight reduction that required one administer a good shaking to the wine, which even then revealed smoky bacon, sweat, and sage along with its ripe cherry. This wine’s exuberance and the faintly bitter and tart edge to its fruit make for an attractive degree of invigoration for a wine so inexpensive.Imported by AV Brands, Columbia, MD; tel. (410) 884 9463