This Museum Release Shiraz wine is drinking exceptionally well right now. Flavours of blackberries and blueberries, dark chocolate and hints of liquorice, anise, mocha and sweet spices. The tannins have softened beautifully, being fine and powdery soft now, The wine has amazing length, and still retains fresher dark berry fruit flavours on the finish.

Margaret River

Our winemaking philosophy from the very beginning, has been to handle our red ferments using traditional, artisanal winemaking practices with minimal additions. We ferment our shiraz for up to 10 days in open topped fermenters to get as much colour, flavour and tannins as possible out of the skins. Daily hand plunging of the skin cap in the morning, is followed later in the day with a ‘drain and return’. A portion of the shiraz ferment is also fermented in barrels to add extra flavour complexity. The wine is pressed off the skins using our basket press, and then matures for 18 years in a mix of French oak barrels.

This was the very first Shiraz that we made, and it was released when we launched our Whicher Ridge wine brand in 2008. It was made from grapes sourced from a vineyard in the southern part of the Margaret River region, and it was the forerunner to our Long Road Shiraz, which was produced from grapes grown in Frankland River sub region. The aging in the cellar has been done for you, and it would make a perfect gift.

This wine has a elegant structure and savoury, rather than fruity flavours. The tannins are softer and not as big and powerful in comparison to the Barossa Shiraz wines that Cathy used to make at St Hallett. Keeping that in mind, the recommendation is to pair with dishes of similar texture and similar focus on savouriness. Using our wine sensory garden affinity beds as inspiration, flavours pairings are italian herb mixes like basil, oregano, and thyme, and also sumac, juniper berries, fennel, chervil, and Tasmanian pepperleaf and pepper berries. Dishes with tomato, squash, white beans, eggplant and radicchio.