Very ripe, meaty Barossa shiraz matured in some very assertive vanilla and smoked oyster-like oak. It’s smoky, creamy aromas of sweet, jammy plums and berries reveal riper notes of raisins and currants. Its palate is smooth and silky, with plenty of forward, if slightly cooked fruit qualities before a slightly herbal finish that does lose some intensity. Not as long-term a wine as usual for this label, but it does offer plenty of rustic charm and flavour from a very hot vintage.

A classic, long-living example of why 2004 is so highly rated. Its deep, brambly aromas of dark cherries, blueberries, blackberries, sweet coconut ice/vanilla oak overlie meaty, smoky and slightly reductive complexity. Deeply and richly layered, it’s ripe and juicy, delivering a warm and fractionally spirity expression of small berries and smoky undertones framed by firm but velvet-smooth and loose-knit tannins. It’s natural and balanced, without a hint of overcooked fruit.

Very charming, balanced and approachable, but with genuine structure and strength, this finely balanced shiraz belies the heat of its vintage with merely a hint of raisined fruit at the very finish. ItÕs spicy, dark-fruited and rather meaty, with a fresh, floral fragrance backed by hints of cedar, earth and chocolate plus a trace of polished leather. Deep and dark, with a pleasing length of spicy red and black berry flavours supported by a fine, dusty undercarriage, it finishes with a lingering core of fruit and savoury, meaty influences.

Stylish and deeply layered, this refined, elegant Barossa shiraz has a musky, peppery and exotically spicy bouquet of blackberries, mulberries, cassis and dark plums backed by smoky, cedary and vanilla oak with meaty, suede leather undertones. It’s full-flavoured, long and smooth, with brightly lit, confiture-like fruit of piercing intensity and translucent brightness underpinned by silky tannins and tightly knit with dusty oak. It’s likely to become more spicy and savoury with time.