A standout from the stellar 2018 vintage, this bold Barossa red is a masterclass in Australian winemaking. A powerful blend of 64% Shiraz and 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, it draws fruit from two iconic regions - 52% Barossa and 48% Coonawarra - delivering depth, character, and serious ageability. Aged for 17 months in French oak (76% new), this inky, full-bodied red is bursting with flavour. Expect rich notes of blackcurrants, cloves, soy, aniseed, graphite, dark chocolate, and coffee grinds, all seamlessly woven together. Crafted by winemaker Peter Munro and sealed under cork, this is a wine built for the long haul - balanced, powerful, and beautifully structured, with fine acidity and velvety tannins.

A big 1.5l MAGNUM of a "lovely contemporary Barossa Reserve Shiraz" (Halliday) with three Golds and 2 x 95pt scores. The Schild Estate can boast Shiraz vines planted by Ann Jacobs in 1847. The Schild's first arrived in Australia in 1866, and the family moved to the Barossa and purchased vineyards here in 1952. They did not make their first 'Schild' branded wine until 1998, but the estate's reputation grew steadily. Although no longer owned by the family, the estate's vineyards are all still under the family's control. This Ben Schild Reserve is named in honour of Ben Schild, who died suddenly back in 1956, leaving son Ed Schild to manage the business. This 2021 boasts three Golds and several scores of 94-95pts. It is, as Sam Kim Wine Orbit writes: "Instantly appealing ... plump and opulent in the mouth with plush texture backed by loads of silky tannins... with seductive complexity. 95pts" WinePilot complements its "sumptuous palate... bright and vibrant with tremendous juicy ripe fruits..." For Dave Brookes, The Halliday Wine Companion, “There's a real creaminess that I like here. It's not an oak creaminess, more so a plum and blueberry cream with underlying hints of dark-chocolate-dipped cherries, black forest cake, vanillin oak, panforte, olive tapenade, violets and earth. Luscious and mouth-filling with fine tannins and a velvety flow at the back end. It's a lovely contemporary Barossa shiraz. 95pts, Great Value.”

Serious, dark and gestural, this shiraz sourced from a single vineyard in the northwest corner of the Barossa Valley is not for the timid. The Vantablack of the shiraz world. Dark and dense. Ink even, until the calligraphy begins gesturing across the canvas of the mouth. Fabal’s red soil aerates brushstrokes. Minerality gives structure. The paint dries slowly and lingers in the air.

A hallmark of the Utopos Vineyard on Roennfeldt Road is the pitch perfect acid to tannin balance we can achieve in fully ripened fruit. This provides for delicious, highly approachable wines in their youth, whilst enabling them to develop over a 10-15 year period, and maybe more.

Coming from one of the best vintages in recent Barossa history, the Old Block from St Hallett shows what careful vineyard management can do for a wine. Rich, dark and conerntrated but with seamless tannin intergration.

Katnook Prodigy Shiraz is a wonderful example of great Coonawarra Shiraz. Savoury spice and dark berry fruits with a hint of white pepper. An elegant wine with medium intensity and great length. Amazingly concentrated for current drinking, the Prodigy will benefit for over decade in the cellar.

By 1850, Krondorf village comprised 121 Settlers and their families. These 121 souls formed the beginning of a new community that shaped the future of the Barossa Valley. Their spirit is remembered through the rare, meticulously selected old vines, with the 2021 vintage hand crafted from a single vineyard in the Southern Barossa with an average vine age of 60 years. With a minimalist approach to winemaking, gentle pigeage is used to extract tannins then it’s matured in premium French oak barrels for a period of 18 months. This richly textured Shiraz gives lifted and concentrated aromatics of dark plum and blackberry fruit, with complex spicy oak notes from new and seasoned French oak hogsheads. The palate shows incredible depth and intensity, the oak giving balance to the strong core of dark fruit. Graphite, aniseed and chocolate round out the palate. Approachable in the short to mid-term, but also a strong candidate for long-term cellaring.

Yalumba has always had a passion to keep exciting barrels or small batch wines separate from the blending table, regardless of quantity. This is where the Steeple Vineyard Shiraz was discovered. Sourced from antique vines within the Yalumba Steeple Vineyard on the Barossa Valley floor, this Shiraz is a strong expression of terroir, with a dynamic scent, energetic freshness and cooling earthy tannins.

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!