‘Shiraz hits dry patch as wine drinkers opt for sweeter whites like moscato‘
‘Is the writing on the wall for Australian Shiraz?‘
‘Australia’s Most Famous Red Wine Is Having an Identity Crisis‘
If you go by headlines alone, Australian Shiraz died in early 2025.
On the back of two smaller Shiraz vintages, and with exports of the grape falling off a cliff thanks to the ridiculously stupid Chinese tariff imbroglio of 2020-2024, it was perhaps unsurprising to see the hero red grape downunder thrown under a bus earlier this year.
Of course, the figures then came out illustrating that the national Shiraz crush was back up by 23% (on the back of a larger vintage overall) this year, with Australian Shiraz exports up by 11% in volume, and some of that noise died back down a bit.
The noise isn’t just background fluff, though – there is still a shitload of wine floating around in tanks and bottle looking for a home, and I’ve seen lists of bulk Shiraz available that heads into the hundreds of thousands of litres.
More than just Shiraz, it’s Cabernet too, with the Australian Cabernet Sauvignon crush up an astonishing 40% in 2025, resulting in lots of Cabernet to sell as well (and Cab exports are only up 8%).
With those figures swimming around my brain, I went digging into the overflowing Australian Wine and Drinks Review sample pile this week, looking for a bit of Shiraz and Cabernet diversity. I’d already churned through a bit early in September, so this was more an attempt to dig around and cover a cross-section of styles and regions.
Here are 15 of the better wines I came up with:
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