Bleasdale's Senior Winemaker Paul Hotker is James Hallidays Winemaker of the Year 2018. The magnificent fruit for Bleasdales Powder Monkey comes from Hotker's finest Shiraz block, directly behind the winery the oldest in Langhorne Creek. Powder Monkey is named in honour of a young Frank Potts who, at age nine, joined the British Royal Navy as a powder monkey diminutive crew members charged with carrying gunpowder during battle. Later, in 1850, an older and wiser Frank Potts would found the first winery in Langhorne Creek.

Kay Brothers Block 6 Shiraz is a very powerful, concentrated cellaring style with plenty of fruit richness, chocolaty tannins and underlying malty oak. The 1.6 hectare Block 6, which forms part of the Kay Brother's larger 22 hectare Amery Vineyards, was originally a "pumpkin patch" of old bush vines. The Block 6 fruit is batch-vinified in three to five tonne traditional open fermenters originally built by the Kay Brothers in 1895/6. Some parcels are hand plunged while others are fermented under header boards. At completion of fermentation the wine is drained and basket pressed into a combination of one-third each new, one year old and two year old American and Eastern European oak. Maturation takes place for around 18 to 24 months before assemblage and bottling under screw cap.

CLARENDON HILLS Clarendon Onkaparinga Grenache, McLaren Vale

The pinnacle of Chapel Hill's best parcels of red come together to form The Vicar, a prestige full blooded McLaren Vale Shiraz of great distinction. Painstakingly chosen from selected single-vineyard McLaren Vale sites, The Vicar is overflowing with ripe mulberry and licquorice flavours interlinked with sublime oak influence from over 80% French oak influence.

A new label and new take on a classic. The Eileen Hardy Shiraz is juicy, plump and full of life with a magnificent backbone of tannin and spice without being overbearing. A classic in the making.