Big can be beautiful: Schild Estate PRÄMIE Shiraz 2013

According to my online dictionary, PRÄMIE is German for ‘bonus’, but the winery tells me that it means premium. I like bonus better.

Anyway, this is a real heavyweight of a Barossan Shiraz. Sourced from two sites in the eastern Barossan hills, this comes in a heavy bottle, has heavy flavours and a heavy price. Aspirational to the max. Works though.

Dark, purple red in colour, this is loaded with thick, ultra-concentrated mudcake and dark berry flavours. Oak plays a big part on the nose, but it smells like expensive oak (and the fruit seems up the task). There’s oak on the palate too, giving richness through the middle and oak tannins to finish, only heaping more flavour intensity onto the ripe plum and berry fruit characters.

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Luscious, hedonistic and coffeed, the impact here is admirable, the oak deep, the tannins grippy and real. Big but buxom flavours, there is a real guilty pleasure of a wine like this. Quality wine from end to end. Drink: 2015-2030. 18/20, 93/100+

Details: 14.7%, Cork, $70, Sample
Would I buy it? I wouldn’t buy it per-se but I’d drink some. Two glasses.
Buy online: Schild Estate website