2020 Massena Verto Shiraz, Eden & Barossa Valley

Deep, dark and opaque in the glass. Black, brooding aromas of plum, mulberry, dates, plum pudding, sweet spice and oak. Bold, rich and powerful on the palate, this is all about dark, inky black fruits, anise and sweet oak. Firm, structured tannins and bright acidity round it out very nicely. An iron first in a velvet glove 22 JAN 2023. Drink 2023–2038

95 points Aaron Brasher therealreview.com

A selection of Old Vine Shiraz vineyards across the Eden and Barossa Valleys, blended together to create a wine of density and intensity. Open fermented and matured in a combination of ceramic egg and new and seasoned French Oak casks, this is a combination of exceptional vineyards and minimal intervention in the winery.

The Eden Valley was once a part of an ancient sea bed, the thin loam soils sit above a substrate of red clay containing rose quartz and black mica schist fragments. In the heat of summer, cool breezes and low night temperatures promote long, slow ripening of fruit resulting in complex flavours with balanced acidity and fine, silky tannin. The dense red clays of the North West of the Barossa give tiny berries, thick skins and natural tannins, making a combination of these regions a perfect balancing act.

The vineyards are hand harvested in the cool of the morning and left to slowly commence fermentation under a layer of inert gas. Some stalks and whole berries are combined in the ferment, with daily plunging by hand over the course of several weeks. After draining the free run, the skins are gently transferred to a basket press and pressed slowly overnight. Select parcels are transferred to ceramic eggs to give the natural lees stirring to develop palate structure and breath. Other parcels are aged in a mix of 225L and 500L new and seasoned French Oak barrels for 20 months. The wine is then racked to tank and bottled without fining or filtration.'

Jaysen Collins 

Originally this wine came from the sixty-year-old Shiraz vines from Greenock that were about to be uprooted. They were saved in the eleventh hour and we used the fruit to make this extraordinary wine

Sub Regions: Springton (Eden) + Greenock (Barossa)