2021 Brooks Road Shiraz *

Handpicked. 20% whole bunch. Three weeks on skins. Kept on lees in 30% new French oak puncheons for eight months before being racked, blended, and further matured in 25hL foudre and 18 hL concrete egg for 10 months. It’s a mighty red wine, weighty with fruit and oak flavour, but it’s also fresh and flowing. It’s the kind of wine that simply sweeps you along. Sweet raspberry, dense plum, cloves and assorted woodsy spice notes, along with soy, cream and cedar. There’s a chalkiness to the tannin, or at least a fine chalk-dust element, and a general impression of completeness. For all its grunt though I can’t really emphasis the freshness of the profile here enough. It makes this feel as though it’s something of a modern archetype.

An exemplar of warm-climate shiraz, full-weighted and plush, yet managing to come across as fresh, poised and eminently drinkable all at once. Not an easy feat. Hand picked and extracted gently, with the cap kept wet across a three-week period on skins. Matured in oak (30% new) for eight months before blending and transfer to an old 25L foudre and a concrete egg for a further 10 months. Raspberry coulis, clove, star anise and black plum. The tannins, impeccably managed, as is the wont here, with a fine line of savoury chew. The freshness, bright and salty. Excellent wine.

Impressively youthful, dark and deep in the glass. Evocative aromas of mulberry, dark cherry, dried herbs, anise, cola, mocha and sweet spice. Really exotic and lifted. Flavours are full, dense, dark and powerful, lashings of dark fruits, spice and nutty oak. There’s firm, shapely tannins and punchy acidity ensuring the plush fruit is kept under control. Long, textured and delicious.

100% shiraz, mostly from fifty plus year old vines. Handpicked 20% whole bunch, 30% destemmed, 50% crushed. An elegant nose with abundant florals – crushed rose petals, candied violets and a very subtle menthol note paving the way for red and purple fruits, a dusty graphite thread woven throughout, and carefully handled oak. The palate offers up a continuation of the nose, with a tumble of red berries, tary graphite, aniseed pastilles and a savoury finish that whispers of charcuterie. A fine boned framework allows a silky ripple of acid to lace its way along the long, nubile tannins. Supple and poised for action, this wine hums along gently while keeping its feet firmly on the ground. Lovely and polished.