2024 Elderton 1915 Helbig Shiraz, Barossa Valley

The fruit from his little patch of dirt is very highly regarded in the Barossa, and Elderton are doing a stellar job since purchasing the vineyard in 2010. This wine is full bodied and traditionally framed but it seems to have gained a little more detail over the past couple of releases. It's rich in blackberry, damson plum and black cherry fruits with a thick seam of baking spices and hints of cedar, dried tobacco, wood spice, ironstone, roasting meats, tapenade, fruit-and-nut chocolate, fruitcake and blackforest cake. Comforting and long with melt-in-the-mouth tannins and a persistent finish; you can pop this safely away for a couple of decades. Drink 2026-2046.

96+ points Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

From one of the Barossa’s most treasured old vine sites, this wine carries a real sense of history. The Helbig vineyard, planted in 1915 and now over a century old, sits on deep sandy soils near Greenock, producing tiny yields of intensely flavoured fruit. Elderton’s Ashmead family have long recognised its significance, working carefully with these gnarly old vines to capture both power and detail. It is a wine that speaks not just of place, but of time, a living link to the Barossa’s early days.

Concentrated blackberry and plum drive the core, wrapped in layers of dark chocolate, liquorice, spice and a touch of espresso. There is immense depth here, yet it never feels heavy, the old vines bringing a natural balance and a savoury thread that weaves through the richness. Tannins are fine but authoritative, giving structure and length, while the finish lingers with notes of earth, spice and dark fruit that seem to echo long after the glass is empty.

This is built for the long haul. While it can be approached now with a serious decant, it will reward patience over fifteen to twenty years, gradually revealing more complex notes of leather, tobacco and dried herbs as it evolves.

A perfect match for slow roasted beef short ribs, venison with juniper, or a rich lamb dish with rosemary and garlic. This is the kind of bottle that belongs at the centre of a special meal, something to open when the occasion calls for a wine with both presence and pedigree.