Awards and Accolades

GOLD - Limestone Coast Wine Show
GOLD - New World Wine Awards

91 Points, Special Value Wine - James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion
"An 80/20% blend, destemmed, tank-fermented, 30% matured in French oak for 6 months. Full crimson-purple; slick winemaking has produced a full-bodied shiraz with rampant dark/black fruits, texture and structure adding more to the flavour equation. In the right context, could look more like a $38 wine than its $18 price tag."

92 Points - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
"Fabulously fruited and fragrant, the immediately attractive bouquet shows black/blueberry, dark plum, cocoa, cedar and floral aromas, followed by a beautifully weighted palate that is succulent and velvety. The wine offers plenty of delectable fruit flavours, wonderfully framed by silky tannins. Youthful and very drinkable."

2015 Vintage: 90 Points - Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front
"The wine (and value) is very good here. Little wonder this new label has been such a commercial hit. Volume of fruit, sweet and blackberried. All up front, all good, all bursting to impress. Anise and spice notes carry on with the seductive theme. There's almost no oak flavour here to speak of, or not that i can tell, ut given the generosity of the fruit there's no need for it. No brainer territory"

Vivid red / purple in colour with an expansive nose of blackberries, blood plums and chocolatey oak. The palate is opulent and inviting with dark plum and blackcurrant fruit flavours matched by dried herbs, cloves and subtle spicy oak. Fine-grained savoury tannins provide definition to the impressively long finish.

The Take it to the Grave Shiraz takes on the mysteries and individual personalities of old-vine vineyards. Sourced from a selection of mature, dry-grown vineyards in Langhorne Creek managed by Jim Zerella (delivering intensity, length and structure) and blended with a parcel of Barossa Valley Shiraz from Light Pass and the eastern slopes that provided opulent fruit depth.

The fruit is partially hand-harvested before de-stemming and cool fermentation in small two tonne open fermenters with regular hand plunging. Matured in seasoned French oak (20% new French) for six months before bottling with minimal filtration and sulphur addition.

An outstanding vintage. Excellent, balanced and consistent conditions – warm but crucially not too warm, dry but not too dry, and finally cool Autumn nights that allowed for retention of natural acidity – have led to intensely flavoured and brilliantly balanced fruit with excellent freshness.

From the Winery

Sourced from a combination of dry-grown inland and cooler climate central South Australian vineyards (providing depth of flavor and supple drinkability) with a portion from the Adelaide Hills (giving structure and high note aromatics). Primarily machine picked before vinification in a combination of small and large open fermenters. The majority of the blend is matured in stainless steel with a component aged in new and one year old French oak.