2016 - Meshach, Grant Burge, Barossa

The 2016 Meshach Shiraz is a blend of several old-vine parcels located between Rowland Flat and Tanunda and yields that average between one and two tonnes per acre. Matured a year and a half in 18% new French oak hogsheads, with the balance from second to sixth use, it exhibits aromas of cigar box (vanilla, cedar and spice) alongside ripe blackberry and mulberry fruit. Full-bodied, velvety and rich, it's tannic and built to age but isn't entirely unapproachable. With its concentration and length, it looks to have solid aging potential—up to 15 years or more.

Named after Meshach Burge, great-grandfather of Grant Burge, who began the family’s winemaking in 1865. 100% Shiraz from old vines, the majority of which exceed 100 years of age. Hand-harvest. Fermented in stainless-steel and concrete open-top fermenters, with a small proportion of whole bunches. 20 months in 37% new oak hogsheads, with the remainder in two- to four-year-old hogsheads. 77% French and 23% American oak. Barrel selection for the final blend. TA 6.76 g/l, pH 3.67, RS 2.95 g/l.Deep black-purple. Evident chocolate and cocoa notes from oak, with an underlying spiciness of the grape itself. Underneath the layer of oak is a brooding density of baked blackberry and damson fruit. That concentration is very evident on the palate, where there’s plenty of volume and weight, coating the fine tannins and carrying through to a multi-layered finish of spices, dried liquorice and cocoa. This certainly puts its icon credentials forward though it is far from an over-extracted fruit bomb. A finely executed example of its idiom. (TJ)