Grant Burge has been steadily developing and refining his Meshach red wine, an old vine Barossa shiraz of tremendous power and concentration. The 1998 vintage is a genuine blockbuster, steeped in massively proportioned fruit to which some spectacular oak has been skilfully interwoven. Next Meshach off the rank is the 1999 wine, from a vintage that began with some early heat in the Barossa, before cooling off with mid to late-vintage rain. Most of the old vine shiraz had already ripened and been harvested by the time the rain arrived, so the 1999 Meshach (18.9, drink 2007-2011+) was made from entirely sound fruit. It’s perfumed and fragrant, exotically spiced with dusty, herbal influences. There’s some assertive mocha and chocolate barrel ferment character, while the palate is long, silky and velvet-like, like the best of the South Australian 1999s. It’s richly and deeply flavoured, revealing dark berries, plums and cherries, with suggestions of herbs and fennel. A more restrained and possibly earlier-maturing alternative to the 1998 vintage, but clearly from the same stable. Release is scheduled for March this year.
