16 months in French oak barriques with regular lees stirring (bâtonnage).

Bremerton, Bâtonnage, Shiraz, Malbec, Langhorne Creek 2015

Opens as a wine of the land: earthy, crushed ants, white pepper, violets, plum halves in their juice, raspberries, some caramel oak, cardamom spice, a touch of liquorice and tarry boot polish. Bold, sweet and generous fruit flavours with a ferrous spinal rod and a smoky exotic spice echo. Tannins are firm and a little puckering. I left this for a second day to see how it progressed: Day 2 sees concentrated fruit more so than earthy characters but continues the contrasting sweet/savoury finish.

RRP: $32
Alc: 14.5%
Rating: 17/20

Wine sample courtesy of Bremerton