Chris Ringland Hoffman Shiraz 2006 is a wine for the connoisseur. The palate is complex, with flavours of smoke, liquorice, blueberry and toasty oak on a savoury, super-ripe and gentle structure. For the 2006 vintage, the wine was then aged in new French oak for five years, before blending in preparation for bottling. It's impeccably aged and drinking beautifully now or until 2020.

The Chris Ringland Dry Grown Shiraz 2007 smells of mineral oil, leaf litter, stones and dust. Despite it's weight and density, it is lively and vivid. This is a very powerful Shiraz with great structure, it could be cellared for 20-30 years and mature gracefully.

Château Tanunda Chorus GSM has lifted aromas of blackberry, black cherry and raspberry area accompanied by spicy, dark berry fruits and white pepper on the palate. The finish is long with fine-grained tannins from two years' maturation in a combination of new and seasoned American and French oak barrels. Although drinking well now the wine will benefit from medium-term cellaring.

Chris Ringland is one of the most admired and talented winemakers on the planet, but these days, he calls the Barossa Valley home, knowing it like the back of his hand. He has sourced top-notch Shiraz from the vineyards in the northwest of the Valley for this richly flavoured, finely balanced wine. Look for blackberries, plum pudding and dark chocolate. More flavour in this half-bottle than in most twice the size.

Chris Ringland's Barossa Ranges Shiraz is steeped in the Barossa’s 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 Hoffmann Vineyard Shiraz is a tête de cuvée (literally ‘head of the blend’) style. Key parts of the vineyard, with vines between 60 and 100 years old, are picked at different stages of ripeness, resulting in five separate two-tonne grape parcels ultimately filling 20 barrels. The final wine is a selection of the best four barrels. The annual make will never exceed 200 dozen. It’s an ‘essence-of-Shiraz’ style – uncompromisingly rich and concentrated. The first vintage was 2006 and the wine has begun building a track record that will inevitably match that of the Barossa Ranges wine. Right now, you need to decant it 12 hours (or more) before serving to allow the fruit to come to the fore.

An exceptional Barossan Shiraz from the artisan cult producer, Spinifex. The Miette (mee-yet) Shiraz has a delightful balance and charm with flavours of cherry, blueberry and hints of earthy spice, held by finely structured tannins. Succulent, layered and fleshy, the Miette label is a great introduction to the hand-crafted wines from Spinifex.

Deep crimson on the eye. Varietal pepper and rounded oak on the palate. Rich Christmas pudding, with spiced clover & nutmeg on the nose. What a cracking wine. It just has everything you want, perfectly balanced. There is seriously intense fruit, lovely warming oak, beautiful palate weight and length. Just delicious, seriously good.

Murray Street Vineyards might be a recent addition to the Barossa Valley elite, but it hasn't taken Andrew Seppelt and his team to firmly place themselves at the pointy end of quality in the Barossa. With access to some of the oldest vineyards in the Valley, Murray Street are able to produce wines like this Red Label Shiraz that are bursting with varietal aromas and flavours. Dark, purple and blueberry fruit with a fine and integrated tannin structure. A beautifully balanced wine.