The Everest Shiraz 2020

This is totally seductive and sensually appealing with black/blueberry, cake spice, French vanilla, cedary oak and dark chocolate aromas on the nose. The palate exhibits magnificent concentration and depth, splendidly enhanced by lavish texture and beautifully melded tannins. Dazzling and dramatic with symphonic complexity, the wine offers graceful opulence and sublime sophistication. At its best: 2026 to 2045.

The pinnacle of the achievements of the team here, only released from the top vintages, after the fruit is sourced from the best blocks accessible. One-tonne open fermenters are used with hand-plunging four times a day. A year and a half in top-notch French oak before another couple in bottle in their cellars.
Deep dark maroon. This is bold, burly and concentrated. The nose gives us notes of axle grease (in the most positive way), tar, coffee grinds, soy, dark chocolate, blackcurrants and a flick of blueberries. Rich, generous, impressive extraction with mouthcoating yet silky tannins. The wine has quite incredible length. It is almost chewy in structure. A real future here, a twenty year proposition.

Power and style wrapped into a compelling example of Barossa Shiraz. It’s a rich and generous wine loaded with fully ripe and plush fruit. Aromas of dark blackberry and plum with a spicy slightly roasted coffee grind character. Plush middle palate explodes with the weight and intensity from this deep core of fruit. Powerful, yes, but it retains a stylish refinement. Drink by: 2024-2049

Medium-deep crimson. Intense blackberry, blackcurrant, parline aromas with liquorice/aniseed notes. Plush and inky deep blackberry, blackcurrant pastille fruits, fine loose-knit slinky tannins, very good mid-palate volume and underlying mocha/dark chocolate notes. Chocolaty finish with oaky nuances. Beautifully made wine with the alcohol giving weight and length. 2026-2038

Deep ruby core, purple into the rim. Rich aromas of ripe mulberry, bay leaf and iodine lift from the glass. Dark and dense fruit, well built and plush with layers of char, anise and ferrous minerality all adding to the power and complexity. Tannins are finely built, and there's ample power to ensure drive and focus as it runs very long and finishes with a fanfare of savoury delight. A serious wine that offers both power and detail in perfect harmony. 2024-2042

Château Tanunda’s flagship wine is only released in exceptional vintages. Matured for 18 months in French oak with a further 24 months in bottle before release. Elegant aromas of blackberry, black cherry and plum are underscored by fine spice, black licorice, cedar, vanilla bean, earth, dark chocolate and panforte. A graceful palate presence with considerable fruit depth, plunging tannins and fine, lacy acidity. Finishes long and pure with a raft of spice and black fruits. One for the cellar..

This deep and intensely flavoured 2020 Barossa Shiraz is a traditional style with wide appeal thanks to its lashings of blackberry, chocolate interwoven with sage and spice suggesting a strong Eden Valley influence. Bold yet balanced with explosive dark cherry and chocolate truffle flavours underpinned by tightly packed tannins of the vintage topped by supreme length. A wine that lives up to its name. Drink by: 2029-2042

The pinnacle (so to speak) of Barossa Shiraz. The drinker is asked to climb to the mountain top of what is undoubtedly a wine of some presence and profundity. It asks a lot and delivers much in return. Aromas lifted in aromatic spices meld with black plum, blackberry, cassis, black liquorice and dark chocolate, mocha, vanillin, woodsy oak notes among a busy flurry of scents. The palate is plush and lingering, built along the lines of solid tannins but, nevertheless, still malleable. The fruit presence is dark and spice fueled and full of considerable power and intensity. For lovers of traditional style Barossan Shiraz, it fulfills every desire. Fruit is bold, rich and dense, while the oak component is equally generous. Everything seems out-sized at this early stage but, then again, this is a wine built for the long term. Drink by: 2024-2046

Tasting two vintages of this wine side by side really gives us the context that we seek. The 2020 The Everest Shiraz is a fresher, brighter, more supple rendition of this flagship wine than the more brooding, dark and earthy 2019 vintage that preceded it. Here, the fruit shines with red berries, pink peppercorns, star anise, red licorice and spice. It is long, svelte, lovely. I bet this is far improved on the second day after opening.

Baked blueberry and plum fruit on the nose with violet essence, mocha and cracked pepper. It’s deep and seductive, full-bodied, full of rich blue fruit supported by firm, ripe tannins. Long and intense. Try from 2024.