Colour: Deep crimson with a purple hue Nose: Red and blue fruits with subtle spice Palate: Bright red fruits intertwined by dark cherries, balanced with soft oak and silky tannins, pushing through depth and purity.

Put a quadruple Gold, 96pt Hunter Valley Shiraz Cabernet on your table. It’s from Hungerford Hill’s always impressive Bryan Currie, and boasts: “Incredible depths of dark, delicious fruit flavours make this wine easy to love. The shiraz imparts a beautiful plushness to the blend while the cabernet provides structure. Bright and harmonious, with ripe, chewy, integrated tannins. Excellent balance and even flow. Good ageing potential. 96pts. (Toni Paterson, The Halliday Wine Companion).” Shanteh Wale, WinePilot adds that finds it “A well balanced wine in almost every vintage I have tried…93pts” and Huon Hook calls it “Very tidy red wine.93pts” in The Real Review.

Brokenwood and the Hunter Valley region is experience somewhat of a renaissance of late. Quality wines for a great prices just like this nice Hunter Shiraz. Typical earthy notes with hints of leather and spice all wrapped around dark brooding plum and cherry fruit. Quality oak imparts a subtle cedar character and fine grained tannins complete the wine that finishes long and smooth.

Concentrated aromas of mulberry and blackberry, complexed by spice notes and well integrated savoury oak. A fruit driven Shiraz displaying sweet berry fruits balanced by fine tannins and subtle oak complexity providing a classically elegant finish.

McWilliam's Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz continues lead the pack of great Hunter Valley Shiraz. A lovely return to old form, this Maurice has a striking purple hue to it in the glass. To the nose aromas of liquorice and spice with hints of cedar will beguile. Layers of complex flavours dance across the palate including savoury, spicy dark fruits like dark plums and cherries. A classic of classics.

Crafted from grapes grown on the best block of 50-year-old Timbervines Vineyard, Margan White Label Shiraz proudly flaunts a brick red colour. Matured in old French oak barriques, the wine captivates you with aromas of tobacco leaf, blackcurrants and cassis flowing from the nose. Its rich & savoury palate is full of white pepper, licorice & blackberry characters, firm tannins, and cigar box notes, subtly balanced by crisp as well as lingering acidity. Try pairing it with smoky pulled pork or venison carpaccio for an enhanced taste.

Vigneron's Selection Thunderbolt Shiraz presents a purple red colour with a dark rim. This tempting Shiraz offers interesting aromas and flavours of blackberries, fresh spices and mocha. Spicy oak and velvety tannins integrate with the layered palate to end the wine in a delicate and seamless finish. Serve this beautiful red wine with paprika-roasted leg of lamb, or Indian-spiced short ribs, to truly relish its grand flavours.

A perfect marriage of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon fruits, this is a modern Australian style of red wine. The Cabernet gives the wine structure and length, while the Shiraz imparts it deep plum fruit sweetness, along with dark berry and chocolate flavours. This is a nice and well rounded drink.

The altitudinal influence (to 600 metres) of this Central Ranges Shiraz is defined and embedded in a parcel of freshness. This mid-weighted wine displays red fruit flavours with hints of blackberries and pepper spice. An easy-going dinner shiraz, perfect with steak and roasted beef.