Chapel Hill's Cabernet Sauvignon is a superb McLaren Vale wine which rivals others well beyond its price range. Generous blackcurrant, dark cherries, cedar and spice mixed in with fine, firm tannins. This wine can be enjoyed now but will continue to improve with a few years in the cellar.

Vibrant, youthful colour, medium density and lovely purple tints for this Shiraz by Brokenwood. Being a cooler year the aromas are more on the spice cherry side than ripe and opulent. Medium weight palate and again spice and savoury edges. The tell-tale McLaren Vale jube fruit is there along with background oak.

Produced from a mature low yielding vineyard in the heart of McLaren Vale, Gemtree Uncut Shiraz is a superb expression of the region. Generous dark fruits abounds on the palate with fine tannins and balanced acidity, which leads to a lengthy finish.

d'Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz is a firm favourite with many McLaren Vale Shiraz lovers and for good reason. This is another great example of the rich, full-bodied style with aromas of ripe blackberry and spice that mingle with minty peppery notes. The palate is full-flavoured, supple in texture with a velvety finish.

The McLaren Vale can be considered the true home of Grenache blends here in Australia witho some of the oldest vines in the world being dry grown there. Steve Maglieri's Serafino label provides a rich and delicious GSM blend a nose of rose petal and tobacco. The palate flows on with dense coffee and cedar notes that glide across the tongue.

McLaren Vale and Shiraz - the perfect match. Steve Maglieri is the icon behind the Serafino name and his Shiraz is a typically wonderful full-flavoured and full-bodied red with the black and red fruits you can handle. A rich and voluptuous palate with a silken, textured finish that is a perfect match to big, rich beef dishes or a robust lamb ragu.

Beresford pride themselves on passionately capturing the pure varietal expression and the essence of their terrior to deliver a Shiraz of timeless elegance and muscular complexity. Quintessentially McLaren Vale, the wine has a rich, full palate brimming with dark berry fruits, coffee and spice characteristics finishing with soft, lengthy tannins. A cracking wine of great substance and exceptional balance.

Chapel Hill's Michael Fragos loves using The Parson Shiraz to showcase McLarenVale's diversity and varietal character. The Shallow soils over livestone in maritime influenced vineyards between McLaren Vale and Masline Beach and also around Bowering Hill, provide explosive blueberries and liquorice with finesse and a wonderfully framing tannin structure. Up in the foothills of the Mount Lofty ranges, a Kangarilla vineyard offers Indian spice complexities that many higher priced wines would simply love to have. The added length and savoury tannins of this component and the use of some French oak result in a beguiling final release that is extraordinary.

The Nosey Parker simply delivers in spades. Swathes of sweetly spiced blackberry woven with pencil shaving oak, backed up by a rich, powerfully long palate. The Nosey is a very versatile wine in that it is perfectly suited to be enjoyed on its own or is equally at home when paired with rich and flavoursome cuisine.

Produced from low yielding, hand harvested vines and made using traditional techniques, D'Arry's Original is a smooth, textured, full bodied red which typifies the generous McLaren style. Always one of those little cellar stars that you can buy up a case or two, hide under the house for a decade and be quietly content that d'Arry's Original will be shining in a decade.