A wine targeted as a match with a rib eye cut piece of meat (sorry vegetarians: you could have it with a crispy mushroom pizza), so how does the sophomore vintage release steak…errr…stack up?

De Bortoli, Woodfired, Shiraz, Heathcote, 2016

There’s no mistaking the intent here: powerful, almost porty characters: spiced, sappy, fleshy, inky and gravel with a slight resiny note. Plump, black cherry, licorice and charry oak (like the burnt ends of a roast) with firm but velvet tannins you can feel on your teeth. It’s not blunt, dull or dumb: the wine making clever to produce a wine could easily have slipped into an anachronistic caricature.

RRP: $ 20
Alc: 14.5%

Wine sample courtesy of De Bortoli