LE Reserve Shiraz 2022

Gorgeously complex and enticing, the wine shows black and blueberry, violet, game, clove, and stylish oak characters. The concentrated palate exhibits terrific fruit richness with elegant complexity, splendidly structured by beautifully infused tannins, making it highly enjoyable. At its best: now to 2039.

For me, this is the star of the premium collection for this vintage. The fruit is sourced from a single vineyard in the Flaxman Valley sub-region of the Eden Valley. The fine 2022 vintage seems ideally suited to providing refinement and elegance in the best reds from that region. This wine is a tribute to Lawrence and Edna Schrapel who, for more than half a century, were custodians of the Bethany vineyard. Under cork. A whole berry fermentation was followed by a year and a half of maturation in a combination of French oak hogsheads and puncheons, 72% new. A very dark maroon colour, with purple rim, chocolate, plums, spices, blackberries, mocha, violets and vanilla are all present on the nose. There is seriously impressive oak integration here. The palate is ripe and lifts further, making this a most exuberant style. On the palate we see the move to flavours of mocha, coffee beans and cassis. Richly flavoured, this is absolutely delicious and will drink beautifully over the next 15–20 years. The wine finishes with wonderful length and the silkiest of tannins. Drink now–2045

Ink black at the core, deeply staining purple tones at the rim. Ripe blueberry, dark chocolate and clove aromatics. It is weighty and powerful on the palate, fruit and spice notes fill every corner of the mouth as it flows with a velvet glide across the tongue. Tannins have enough definition to keep it driving into a long and ultimately well focused, drying finish.