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.

Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Shiraz is the pinnacle of a long winemaking journey of excellence, that rightfully honours one of Yalumbas most adventurous sons. A blend of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and Barossa Shiraz, The Caley is a classic marriage of two noble varieties and two great Australian wine regions.

Château Pavie Decesse is a St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé property in the Côtes sub-district, considered the equal of its illustrious neighbour, Chateau Pavie. The origins of both can be traced back to ancient Roman times. The 3.5ha vineyard, on chalky, limestone and clay soils and contiguous with Pavie, is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Following cold maceration, the Chateau wine is vinified in temperature-controlled oak vats. Malolactic fermentation takes place in French oak barrels. The wine is aged in 80% new oak for between 18 and 24 months, depending on vintage character. Production is small, around 650 dozen each year. The hedonistic Pavie Decesse style combines opulent, rich, sensuous textures with minerality, freshness and concentration. Due to its lush style Pavie Decesse drinks well young, yet does develop additional complexity with time in the cellar. Wine quality has been consistently excellent under the ownership, since 1997, of Gerard and Chantal Perse.

Chris Ringland's Barossa Ranges Shiraz is steeped in the Barossas post-colonial story and the high art and science of winemaking. Typically deep in colour with intense dark berry, paneforte, espresso roasted chestnut aromas, it displays a plush and concentrated palate with blackberry, mocha, paneforte spicy flavours and dense fine chocolaty tannins. Despite the opulence, flamboyance, richness and concentration, the wine has superb percussion and freshness. The wine is a small vinification of around four to five hogsheads or 1500 litres. The "unusually thick skinned" Shiraz is entirely sourced from Chris Ringland's dry-grown vineyard on the edge of the Barossa Valley, but technically in Eden Valley, along Flaxman's Valley near Randall's Hill. The wine is "painstakingly hand-made" in open fermenters and regularly pumped-over to extract colour, flavour and tannins. After draining and pressing through a traditional basket press, fermentation is completed in 100% new French oak hogsheads. A period of up to 50 months oak maturation follows to achieve optimum complexity and balance between oak and fruit. The extraordinarily high release prices (higher than Penfolds Grange), limited production and reputation make Chris Ringland Barossa Ranges Shiraz the stuff of legend.

BRUNO GIACOSA Falletto Rabaja Di Barbaresco, Barbaresco

Roberto Voerzio Fossati Barolo The Fossati is a descentdaent of the Fossati Case Nere 10 Anni Riserva. This wine offers a dual education in the power and robustness of relatively younger vineyard Barolo (it is more Barolo than La Morra) and the lamentable predictability of Italian bureaucratic nonsense. Owing to a change in the regulations, Roberto Voerzio had to change tack from his doppio cru reserve Barolo, known as Fossati Case Nere, as producers can only put the name of the winery, the region, sub-region or the particular cru on the label. You might think this is a reasonable stipulation, and, in truth, it is. What was so predictably lamentable is that it took so long. Now Roberto keeps the Case Nere for his Riserva and the Fossati for the Young Turk of Barolo that we may enjoy now. The 2015 was the first vintage of this wine.

Roberto Voerzio Cerequio Barolo The south/southeast-facing vineyard of Cerequioone of the most prestigious Crus in the commune of La Morra if not all of Barolosits at 270-320m asl. The older vines are pruned for low yields with an aggressive green harvest followed by trimming the bunches to about 500g of fruit per plant. The fruit is harvested by hand (in late September, early October) and fermented on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks. The wine is then aged for two years in older French oak barrels and 20 hectolitre botti followed by an additional eight months in tank. It spends further eight months in bottle before release.