A meld of 8yo machine-picked vines and 70yo hand-picked vines. Fully destemmed and wild-yeast fermented with ample whole berries in the mix. No sulfur addition. A pulpy, full-weighted wine, soft enough for imminent pleasure. Violet scents lilt toward a suite of black cherry, boysenberry, Asian spice and iodine flavours. The oak (20% new, French/American) imparts a mocha/coffee/cedar twang to the finish.

Always a McLaren Vale strength, the region’s shiraz can either be fruit forward and generous, all but jumping into your lap, or a little more circumspect. This wine falls into the latter category. You can almost feel it growing, its budding complexity going through the stages. So much so, that this wine was tasting even better the second day after opening. There’s a lesson there. Consider some ageing as well as early drinking. Deep in colour and scent with heady aromas of black fruits, dark chocolate, toasted spices, and dried herbs. Note the focused tannins on the palate. They’re counting time on this dense, lightly savoury shiraz with its deep undertow of heady spice. Aided by fine tannins and balanced oak, the wine sings but it’s just warming up.

Put aside the fascination and the success which Corrina and her team have had with all manner of varieties, new, quirky and wonderfully weird, it is Shiraz that is the bread and butter of their estate (as well as their own wines, they are also highly regarded growers for many of our big names). We are talking about a winery in the very heart of McLaren Vale, so it certainly should be. This is a perfect example of what they are capable of – a cracking, deeply flavoured Shiraz. The wine was open-fermented and then aged in a mix of French and American hogsheads for 18 months.

The colour is near opaque. Lifted, alluring and yet dense aromas here – black olives, roast meats, cocoa powder, black cherries, chocolate, campfire notes. There is good intensity throughout, continuing on the lengthy finish. Good acidity, immaculate balance and silky tannins, the oak holds it all together but never interferes. A wine of line and length. A big future here. This is a serious Shiraz and a very fine example of what McLaren Vale can do. Also, great value.

And the story? This was the year in which ‘Corrina won ASVO Winemaker of the Year’. Now that is a good story.