Clarendon Hills is the living vision of one of the world's greatest Shiraz winemakers, Roman Bratasiuk. The dream was realised in 1990 and is now home to some of the most outstanding and hard to get single vineyard wines in Australia. The Astralis is the flagship wine in the Clarendon Hills portfolio, and while this vineyard is not treated any differently to the others, it garners the most worldwide attention due to its incredible expression and timeless elegance. From an Easterly aspect and planted on a 45 degree ascending slope, Australis has phenomenal varietal length and will repay the patient cellarer for more than 15 years.
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.
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.
With a name that directly translates from French as 'The Soil', the Le Sol Syrah (Shiraz) pays homage to the terroir that creates this rich and evocative wine. With the trademark Gimblett Gravels stony soil, with exhibits amazing refinement and breeding while not relinquishing body and complexity.
Australia's premier cool climate Cabernet. It was John Middleton's dream to create such a wine and purchased the Mount Mary property in the Yarra Valley in 1971 to persue this dream. Quintet is his dream realised and is a blend of the classic Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
Mount Mary Vineyard Yarra Valley Quintet 750MLx6 2021
Chateau Canon shows no shy and retiring character in 2010, set to a naturally ripe and high 15% alcohol. Though power and density is a motif in 2010, there is a surprising suppleness in this wine, born from central St-Emillion vineyards and the same family of wine as Chateau Rauzan-Segla of Margaux. Almost evenly split between Merlot and Cabernet Franc usually, it''s three quarters Merlot in 2010; the wine matures in oak barrel for 18 months, with around 70% of those offering new wood character. While dense and compact, there is a succulence to the wine that suggests cellaring to two decades would be apt.
Graveyard Vineyard is the jewel in the Brokenwood crown, responsible for the company's flagship wines. The vineyard was planted with Shiraz vines in 1970 - extremely heavy clay soils, yields are low, but fruit flavour is intense through employment of meticulous vinification techniques. Strong lifted aromas of sweet earth and dark cherry greet the olfactory senses. Oak features, but will soften and integrate given some patience. Initial flavours of dark chocolate and ripe plums are beautifully lashed to ripe tannins lending an edge of cedar.