While Jason Schwarz’s most recent releases are very much nouveau Barossan in style – vital, mid weight wines – there are still a few arch-traditional winners in the Schwarz range, just like this single-vineyard Bethany Shiraz.

Proper Barossa luscious flavour is the go here, with big oak, big fruit and big impact. It works, the cocoa fudge oak a force of seduction, the plate smooth, dark, slightly warm and aiming for decadence. There’s a danger with wines like this becoming caricatures, but the sheer lusciousness of this style is compelling. A wine to win trophies, perhaps, but win some hearts along the way. Best drinking: now to fifteen or more years. 18.5/20, 94/100. 14.3%, $45. Would I buy it? Not my style historically, but I’d share a bottle.