Cat Amongst The Pigeons Shiraz certainly does it's name justice with a Shiraz that serves it up to the all the favourite heavy hitting Shiraz on the shelves. With an alluring nose of pepper, blueberry, and blackberry, this Barossa Valley beauty has layers of flavour, ripe fruit, excellent balance, and enough structure to evolve for a few years.

Based at their Home of the Brave winery in the Barossa, First Drop describe their wine-making philosophy as a sensibility for tradition with a passion for innovation. The Cream is blended at the optimum time from the best barrels from First Drops most prized vineyards to create the ultimate expression of Barossa Shiraz from the vintage.

Vinification is simple and centred around preserving the delicacy, freshness and vitality found in early picked old vine fruit. This Spinifex Rose consists of Grenache (52%), Cinsault (30 %), Mataro (14%) and Ugni blanc (4%). Bunches from mature (averaging 65 years of age) dry drown vineyards are hand harvested and the crushed and left to macerate for between 4 and 48 hrs prior to pressing.

Red wine artisan, Marco Cirillo, has produced a single vineyard Shiraz with as minimal intervention as possible. Using 90% whole berry and 10% whole bunch as well as natural yeast fermentation without fining or filtering, this Shiraz screams of its terroir. Expressive fruit up front of plums and red berries with small waft of leafy characters. The palate dances across the tongue without hindrance from over use of oak and is a supreme wine for the price.

The inspiration from the Barossas best old vine Grenache vineyards created Annexus, an addition to the John Duval's Plexus blend. Annexus is a small unique blend selected from their best old low yielding Grenache vineyards, made only in the best years.

Every so often there are parcels of wine that generate tremendous excitement amongst the winemakers at Schild Estate. They set this aside to make Prämie, the wine that defines the best of the vintage and the land on which it was grown. Intense primary fresh plum flavours show again on the palate, where they hold their presence all the way through to roll out soft and pillowy at the finish. A firmly present, but fine tannin framework provides just enough focus and lift for the fruit to ensure added complexity, but retaining vibrancy to the mouth flavours of this Shiraz.

Z Wine's Rustica Shiraz is an intense crimson red with purple hues followed by aromas of ripe cherry and red plum which are complimented by hints of pepper and spice with lifted perfumed notes. The palate is warm and full flavoured, displaying generous sweet red fruit, such as cherry, raspberry and plum. These fruits are couple with cedar spice notes and the soft mouth-filling tannins carry the fruit as well as providing structure and length to the wine. This wine is an exemplary example of a lifted, fruit filled Barossa Shiraz suitable for drinking in its youth.

As the custodian of some of the world's oldest Grenache vines, Marco Cirillo has been called the guru of Grenache! The 1850s Grenache, as the name suggests, has fruit that comes from vines that date back over 160 years. Truly remarkable flavours of red fruit, earth and leather notes. An old world feel comes from a glass of this new world Grenache.

John Duval, famously known as the craftsman of the mighty Penfolds Grange, continues to further forge his reputation as a maker of great Shiraz. 'Eligo' from the latin: 'To pick out, select or choose or choose the best' is the flagship wine of the John Duval stable with its main aim to produce a Shiraz with structure and an elegant expression of its terrior. Multi layered with lashes of dark berry fruit, the wine is intense yet still quite restrained. An excellent Barossan Shiraz!

Bethany's Old Quarry Fronti is a unique wine made from Muscat a Petit Grains, Muscadelle & the Spanish Sherry variety Pedro Ximenez. Harvested late in the season and then fortified, this delicious example can be enjoyed slightly chilled or as an aperitif.