2015 Mount Edelstone Shiraz

Opaque ruby. Dark berry preserves, fruitcake, pipe tobacco candied flowers and a hint of vanilla on the deeply perfumed nose. Stains the palate with sappy black and blue fruit, mocha, licorice and rose pastille flavors and exotic spice and mineral nuances add energetic lift. Fleshy and deep but lively as well, with an impressively long, gently tannic finish that shows superb focus and dark fruit-driven persistence.

100% Shiraz from 103-year-old vines. Aged for 18 months in 78% French and 22% American (22% new) oak hogsheads. Described as ‘overgrown Pinot’ by Stephen Henschke. Incredibly intense! It’s a really marked shift up from their Tappa Pass 2016 just tasted. There’s a pungent herbal edge to the nose, as well as plenty of sweet vanilla oak – but the main headline is that beautifully juicy black fruit, which has both freshness and a more boiled, pastille-like quality. Layers of flavour and texture, but already totally drinkable in terms of structure. Long, tarry, peppery finish. (RH)

Camphor, pitch and raspberry appear on the nose of Henschke's 2015 Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz. It's a muscular, full-bodied expression of Eden Valley Shiraz, with notes of black olives and cassis on the palate and enough tannins to give this amply-endowed wine a savory edge. There's a lovely sense of tension between the fruity and savory elements and a long, velvety finish, making this one of the stars of the lineup—and a relative bargain compared to the Hill of Grace. The dry-farmed vineyard was planted in 1912 and has been bottled as a single-vineyard wine since 1952, making it one of the oldest such wines in Australia.