This most anticipated Grange is on the one hand a truly exceptional shiraz, but on the other is a genuine departure from GrangeÕs typical style. ItÕs powerful, layered and bruising to be sure, but thereÕs nothing heavy, clunky or over the top about it. In fact, itÕs remarkably elegant and balanced Ð a heady, deep and alluring wine whose deep violet-like aromas and wild, brambly flavours of cassis, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries simply soak up its finely integrated sweet oak. Saturated with fruit, itÕs long, velvet-like and sumptuous; underpinned by fine, tight and drying tannins before finishing long, savoury and mineral, with lingering nuances of licorice, cloves, bay leaf, anise and cola. Spectacular.

A very contemporary, richly fruited and opulent Grange that is already very smooth and approachable. ItÕs very ripe and perfumed, scented with meaty aromas of cassis, blackberries, dates and figs knit with sweet, fine-grained mocha-like oak. Long, sweetly flavoured and backed by gamey complexity, it drips with intense, sumptuous fruit handsomely integrated with oak and polished, pliant tannins. With time it should more closely resemble the classical Grange benchmark.

Supremely well made and uber-refined, this is a classic Grange of density, balance and elegance. ItÕs wonderfully vital and pure, with a deeply ripened bouquet of blackberries, dark plums and cassis that soaks up its sweet cedar/chocolate/vanilla oak, becoming more fiery and briary with aeration. It steadily reveals nuances of exotic spices, floral perfume and a hint of meatiness. Long and luxuriant, with deep tightly knit and handsomely oaked layers of sour-edged dark plum and berry flavour, itÕs supported by a fine chalkiness, finishes with a brightly lit acidity and is already alarmingly drinkable for a wine whose best years are several decades away.