2023 Mayford Porepunkah Shiraz, Alpine Valleys

Multiple small batches and natural yeast ferments, matured separately; 22 months' maturation in French oak barriques (30% new). Sourced from the 21-year-old, 400ml high Nicholson/Mayford vineyard with 10 shiraz clones in play. It's all beauty, spice and sophistication. A peppery, spiced array of lively black, red and blue fruits, smart vanillin oak, earth and leather aromas. Crafted along ripe tannins, the spice, licorice and chocolate notes add that extra level of interest against a solid background of generous fruit and oak. Impressive now; it's also got a long future ahead.

96 points Special Value Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion January 2026

This wine looks both very young and very good. It’s a wine of finesse, and flavour, and polish, and finish. It shows more cherries than plums, more spice than toast, more delicacy than oomph. And yet it comfortably fills the mouth with flavour, and comes with highlights of orange rind and Campari, and is slipped with such impressively fine tannin. It’s a new-fashioned – and arguably more elite – version of an old-fashioned Ovens Valley Burgundy. There are few higher compliments that can be bestowed.

96 points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front Drink 2029 - 2037+

Mayford is the tiny mountain estate of Eleana Anderson and Bryan Nicholson, tucked high above Porepunkah in Victoria’s Alpine Valleys. Their small production wines have developed a loyal following because they are shaped as much by this unusual high country site as by variety. Shiraz takes on a particularly appealing personality here, far removed from the broad, powerful styles of warmer regions and driven instead by perfume, spice and savoury detail.

The vineyard sits around 500 metres above sea level, with granitic soils, warm days and distinctly cool nights. The 2023 growing season was cool and drawn out, allowing Shiraz to ripen slowly and retain plenty of natural freshness. It gives the wine a lovely sense of restraint, with pepper and dark fruit rather than sweetness or sheer weight doing the talking.

Deep ruby crimson, the bouquet opens with blackberry, black cherry and blueberry, followed by violet, cracked black pepper and dried rosemary. Black olive, liquorice, graphite and a faint smoky note emerge underneath. The palate is medium bodied and finely shaped, with dark cherry and blackberry carried by fresh acidity and firm, powdery tannins. Pepper, olive and graphite run through the middle before a long, dry finish of dark fruit and spice.

Chargrilled lamb cutlets with anchovy butter would be excellent here, alongside Korean galbi, pepper crusted tuna, smoky eggplant with harissa or beef and shiitake skewers. Our pick is the tuna. Rare, meaty fish with plenty of cracked pepper against cool climate Shiraz is a combination we don't employ nearly often enough.

Cellaring: Drink now to 2036.