Wendouree Shiraz 2017

Wendouree produces some of the very few wines we will buy without tasting! The wines are something special. A celebration of an incredible old vineyard with plantings from the late 1800s. Wendouree has no cellar door, no fax, no website, it doesn’t need them. The wines have such an incredible history and pedigree, they speak for themselves. This wine demands a place in your cellar just as much as Penfolds Grange, Mount Mary Quintet & Bass Phillip Pinot Noir.

Wendouree was established in 1893 by Alfred Percy Birks towards the northern end of the Clare Valley in South Australia and is one of the oldest operational wineries in Australia. Much of the original vineyard, winery and even some of the original winemaking equipment are still in service. The soils are red-brown chocolaty loams over limestone, allowing excellent drainage. The climate is essentially continental with hot summers and cool/cold winters. 

From 1893 and 1919 plantings. Amazing history, and while I’m perhaps not the biggest flag waver for Australian (red) wines, by God we’ve got some treasures to be, erm, treasured. Chocolate, coffee and a sweet earthiness, blackberry, mint, cedar and vanilla. Pushing to full-bodied, deep and chewy, dark pools of fruit, stony minerals skipping across it, almost smoky and something like Kopiko in that sweet essence of coffee, acidity is firm but neatly tucked in, tannin sweeps wide grained and grainy on the finish. A surprising richness to this release, yet it has energy and calm authority, brightness of raspberry in the aftertaste. It pains me to rate a Shiraz as highly as Malbec or Cabernet, yet it must be done. As an afterthought, not the finesse or elegance of the BDX wines, but it does throb and resonate. - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, 96 Points 

The Finer Details
Style - Red Wine
Varietal - Shiraz
Country - Australia
Region - Clare Valley, South Australia
Vintage - 2017
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 13.7%
Closure - Screw Cap