The best

• red wine
• white wine
• champagne
• rosé
• whisky
• spirits
• beer

deals in Australia

The Shingleback D Block Reserve Shiraz is named for the Davey Block of the Davey Estate vineyard and is the personal expression of the McLaren Vale from the eyes of winemaker John Davey. True reserve wines, the D Block is only made in exceptional vintages just like this 2009. In the glass the wine has a colour that is impenetrable purple red. On the nose there are aromas of mulberry and blackberry that mingle with dusty cashew, milky chocolate (typical of McLaren Vale), spice and forest floor. There are tight, fine tannins to counter the bold, fresh fruit which results in an alluring and unmistakable wine that expresses the essence of the vine, the time and the place.

Planted in 2007, this 0.8-hectare vineyard is littered with volcanic rocks (hence the name) and lies on the plateau above the De La Terre slope—essentially making it a westerly extension of the Serré vineyard. It was originally planted with various clonal cuttings from Best’s and Tahbilk on a mix of rootstock and own roots. Holmes only uses the Best’s clone in this bottling today and the rest of the site has been grafted over to Chardonnay, giving Bannockburn a close-planted Chardonnay block, named Grigsby after Bannockburn’s long-standing vineyard manager. The fruit was fully destemmed in 2011, wild fermented with indigenous yeast and then spent 12 months in 1/3 new French puncheons and a second year in 5 year old barriques.