Torbreck The Factor Shiraz 2009

Not too many wineries change their industry, but Torbreck has. It was at the forefront of the Barossa's renewed love affair with complex, perfumed and occasionally savoury expressions of the southern Rh™ne red blend, it was amongst the first of the makers of sumptuous warm climate red wines to use viognier with shiraz and it has steadily forged a house style that can somehow achieve an astonishing measure of balance with red wines whose alcoholic strengths regularly stray far north of 15%. Several of the current releases are remarkable to me because you're just unaware of levels of alcohol that in other wines would stand out like an Australian batsman able to play the moving ball. Would they be better still with lower alcoholic strengths? I believe so, but not without the requisite work in the vineyard to achieve comparable levels of flavour at lower sugar levels. At the end of the day, there is so much to admire in the conviction of this company and the wines it creates.