2021 Wild Duck Creek Duck Muck Shiraz, Heathcote

97 points winefront.com.au

A very rare wine of utmost intensity and exceptional quality, rewarding careful cellaring.

Duck Muck was first made by a stroke of luck. Some super-ripe Shiraz was picked from our Original Vineyard and made into wine, which didn’t quite fill a barrel. The barrel was then topped up with Alan’s Cabernet Pressings, being the only wine available to David (Duck) at that time in 1994. The resulting wine was given away to our best customers. What David didn’t appreciate at the time was how the blend of these two vineyards, and that specific style, was going to create a wine that was not only of world class quality, but gain cult status all over the world. With a few refinements, Duck Muck is possibly the hardest wine for us to make. The vineyards are meticulously attended to. Cane pruned, shoot thinned, and fruit thinned to try and achieve the perfect balance in any particular vintage. The fruit is then picked and partly destemmed into small open top fermenters. The Original Vineyard Shiraz having 30% whole bunches left in the ferment. The wine is then gently basket pressed into 100% new Dominique Laurent barriques and matured for up to 27 months. Duck Muck when bottled is extraordinarily intense, with layers of texture, wonderfully complex aroma, and incredible length and depth.

A small family run winery, with founder David Anderson planting their first vines at the Alan’s Cabernet vineyard in 1974. Now, David with his son Liam, and a fabulous team strive to create wines that excite wine enthusiasts and novices alike. Wines that drink wonderfully young and fresh, as well as when gracefully aged.

Using traditional viticulture and winemaking techniques, including cane pruning, hand picking, open and barrel fermentation, whole bunch fermentation, hand plunging and basket pressing. They use new and old oak maturation for up to 36 months depending on the wine.