Maturation sees 12 months in a mix of French oak Hogsheads (300L) and Puncheons (500L), of which one third were new.

Handpicked Wines, Collection, Shiraz, Barossa Valley, 2019

Opaque garnet in hue. Baking spices, peppercorn sauce, stewing plums, a little sweeter vanilla oak, blackberry cream and choc raspberry ganache before some developing tones of roast beef pan juices and creosote. Full flesh with a fine and silky flow now that it has a few years under its belt. No doubting where it comes from. There’s a little lift in the alcohol which spikes through the fine, spreading and cracking tannins and confident black fruit profile. The tail has chary, savoury and graphite threads which keep this grounded. Stylistically big and ready for now.

RRP: $70
Alc: 14.2%
Rating:  92/100

Wine sample courtesy Handpicked Wines