Best's Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz is an amazing wine and is without doubt one of the most important wines made in this country, with fruit coming from the original Thomson Family Vineyard planted in1867. These vines are over 140 years old! Hand picked and hand crafted, produced using century old techniques, this is a wine of true beauty, complexity and character. Only 2800 bottles produced.

This wonderfully elegant Shiraz shows intense, pristine, blackberry fruit and ripe, silky tannins. It almost has a Pinot Noir elegance to it and, luckily, the quality of future vintages will only be getting better too as Voyager's new clones come on line.

Meshach William Burge was Grant's great grandfather and was a central figure in establishing the Burge family in the Barossa Valley. This Shiraz named in his honour is sourced from old vines, some nearing 100 years old, and shows aromas and flavours of complex swiss chocolate, savoury spices and red currant. Grant Burge's flagship shiraz will reward the patient cellarer with 20 years in the bottle in front of it.

One of the benchmarks of Barossa Shiraz, Peter Lehmann's Stonewell is a classic example of the rich concentrated old vine style. While bold on the palate, there is always an inherent complexity to the Stonewell that enables it to be compared with all of the great Australian wines produced today.

WOLF BLASS WINES Platinum Label Medlands Vineyard Shiraz, Barossa Valley

Colour is deep red. The nose shows aniseed, tar, FruChocs and spicy oak. The fine palate entry has mulberry, cranberry, aniseed and liquorice flowing delicately with Rhone-like spicy, chewy, savoury tannins.

Elegant and aristocratic kaleidoscope of aromas, an abundance of fruit flavours, blackberry, mulberry and blueberry with supporting complexity of mint, eucalypt, rhubarb, Turkish delight and cinnamon. The palate offers a rich tapestry of enjoyment and fulfilment of flavours of raspberry, strawberry and boysenberry to name a few. Made by Jim Barry.

Proudly, a wine style that hasn’t succumbed to the dictates of fashion or commerce. St Henri is rich and plush when young, gaining soft, earthy, mocha-like characters as it ages. It is matured in old, 1,460 litre vats that allow the wine to develop, imparting minimal, if any oak character. Although a small proportion of Cabernet is sometimes used to improve structure, the focal point for St Henri remains Shiraz.

Wirra Wirra's flagship Shiraz has won many accolades over the years, including the 'world's best Shiraz'. It's loaded with distinctive McLaren Vale blueberry and chocolate characters, supported by plums, violets and spice, and tannin structure destined for 10 more years in the cellar.

This is a truly wonderful example of the Octavius. Rising from the glass is a tangle of violets, raspberry, spice and vanilla, drawing the taster towards a palate saturated in raspberry, blackberry, liquorice allsorts and star anise. On the verge of greatness, it should be drunk between 2011 - 2014.