Best's Great Western Shiraz Thomson Family

Drank more like a Rhône style Shiraz with a touch more fruit purity - quite elegant. All plums and berries. Lovely dry spice complexity. Always perfectly balanced. Great depth but within neat structure. Kept getting better and better in the glass. Very very good.

I tasted this wine 4 years ago in a ‘best of Australia’ show and rated it as the absolute stand out wine for quality. So it was with a degree of expectation and trepidation I approached this wine. The outcome? Absolutely no disappointment! This is a really top class wine - one of the best this year. Really deep but focussed, intense but balanced. Tautly structured so it’s power never spills over. Black and red fruits, a little char, olive …

Fesq Trade Tasting (Custom House, Circular Quay, Sydney) : Ripe and jammy black fruit and cream on the nose. In the mouth there is initial ripe but savoury blackberry fruit then plentiful chalky tannic grip. Needs time.