Sure it was four years ago, but it was one of those tastings you don’t easily forget. It was a collection of shirazes from 1994, from the then relatively unheralded and cooler Western Australian region of the Great Southern, best known for its riesling and cabernet sauvignon. Keeping company with some of its more established makers like Alkoomi, Frankland Estate, Goundrey and Plantagenet were shirazes from the tiny vineyards of Chatsfield, Gilberts, Pattersons and Jingalla. Two things instantly became obvious. Not only did the tasting reveal what an astonishingly good season 1994 was for Great Southern shiraz, but it reflected what many at the time were beginning to suspect – that this region’s best chance for making a name for itself could be with this sought-after variety. Not in the least because the Great Southern shiraz had much in common with the best Australian shirazes of the day, but more because of their differences. Typically bursting with focused but brambly fruit, scented with occasionally exotic and peppery spices, it’s usually tightly knit around a spine of firm tannin. Sure it’s a cliched call, but the region can surely make shiraz worthy of northern and southern Rhone-ish pretentions. Although it was one of the region’s first vineyards and has made its Shiraz since 1975, the Mount Barker maker of Plantagenet really hit its straps with this variety in the 1990s. A memorable wine of striking depth and intensity, its 1994 Shiraz was easily the best from the region in this exceptional year and a wine easily capable of lasting for decades. After three vintages of less than its usual standard Plantagenet is back in the spotlight with its 1998 Shiraz, a stylish and very expressive package of intense, peppery fruit, dark briary red cherry and black plum flavours, and integrated creamy French oak. Its texture is fleshy and tight-knit, its finish is long and savoury, and its spicy flavour, with licorice and cinnamon highlights, remarkably persistent. There’s an underlying depth and structure that only mature vines can deliver and those at Plantagenet are now the superior side of thirty years old. Anything but the typical Australian shiraz, it doesn’t present any over-ripe or jammy fruit, any spirity alcohol, and no over-the-top American oak. And significantly, the wine demands an accessible retail price of $35 per bottle, a very competitive ask when many are leaving $45 well behind.
