2007 Command Shiraz

Inky purple. Highly perfumed bouquet of cherry-vanilla, candied dark berries, spicecake and woodsmoke, with a slow-building spiciness and a sexy floral quality. Lush and creamy in texture, offering sweet blackberry and blueberry flavors and an exotic note of coconut. Tannins sneak in on the finish, adding grip to the broad, deeply concentrated dark fruit. For all this wine's extroverted character there's also excellent structure and shapeliness. Made from vines that were mostly planted in 1894, and raised in 60% American oak.

2007 was a hot, dry, challenging year in the Barossa but the 1894 plantings that go into the Command Shiraz have seen a lot of innings. The roots of these vines go down an estimated 2+ meters, a factor that goes a long way towards stabilizing yields through thick and thin. Still, this was a relatively small vintage producing around 1000 cases. The 2007 Shiraz Command Elderton Estate gives a medium garnet color and very earthy, intense black cherry and blackberry aromas with some loam and iron ore over spice box and espresso, vanilla and licorice. The full-bodied palate is very concentrated juxtaposed by steady crispness and firm fine tannins. This wine is still very youthful with the oak still standing apart in the long layered finish, yet it’s a great example destined for the long haul. Consider drinking it now to 2024+. I was also shown 2 older vintages of the Command Shraz: 2004 and 1992. ||Although the property was purchased by their grandfather, brothers Al and Cameron Ashmead are really the second generation of Ashmeads at the Elderton helm since it was their parents Neil and Lorraine that rose to the challenge of developing this into one of the Barossa’s top wineries. The first Ashmead vintage was in 1982. The jewel here is the 8 acre estate vineyard planted in 1894 by Samuel Elderton Tolley (one of the largest 100+ year old vineyards on the planet) that produces the Command Shiraz, with the 66 year old Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard also giving exceptional fruit. Since 2003 they’ve had their own winery and now produce around 40-50000 cases per year with winemaker Richard Langford adeptly forging a range of predominately red wines from the good value end right up to the sought-after collectibles. Wine Advocate.December, 2010