Skillogalee Trevarrick Shiraz 2012
13.5%, Screwcap, $70

On the back of the excellent Riesling and Cabernets comes another classic Skillogalee release. A winery hitting boundaries.

I really appreciate this sort of Clare Shiraz, largely as its what I cut my teeth on. 90s Leasingham reds where once the most represented wine in my cellar (along with Wynns Cabernet), so this feels like coming home.

What I most like is the Clare signature – there’s a distinctive Mint Slice regional nose in a compact form. Palate is deliberately structure driven and really quite moderate compared to the modern, oak sweet, pressed off Shiraz. Indeed there is quite a chew to this, lingering with dark chocolate and real tea leaf tannins.

The oak is still present and the acid a fraction raw, but gee the power and form here is classic, all at just 13.5% alcohol.

Oh and that alcohol is correct too – I’m working on a project at the moment studying alcohol labelling and thus sent a sample of this wine (along with a host of others) off for a lab analysis. 13.5% on the dial it came back at.