Matt Burton has made a few Shiraz from the Hilltops in recent years, and they offer a good counterpoint to the mid-weight Hunter Gundog wines and the sometimes lavish Canberra releases. This No.1 Shiraz comes from the Freeman Vineyard at Prunevale in the Hilltops, which is an amazing vineyard for anyone interested, with an incredible fruit salad of varieties planted.
Blood red with a little purple, this smells glossy with lipstick and ripe plum. The palate is really mouthfiling too – some of that peanut brittle Hilltops Shiraz character, but otherwise a big round hit of purple fruit in a rather silken mode. It’s slick, warm, only very lightly tannic, a little jubey, but also pretty impressive in its mouthful of fruit mode. It’s going to win friends with anyone who loves purple-fruited Shiraz.
Best drinking: a year wouldn’t hurt, then drink over a decade easily. 17.5/20, 91/100. 14%, $35. Gundog Estate website. Would I buy it? A glass.
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