SHOTTESBROOKE
ESTATE SERIES SHIRAZ
2016 MCLAREN VALE
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Some of the most complex and hedonistic Cabernet Sauvignon for your dollar, comes from down-under. The grape has a long history in Australia that dates back to the mid-1800s. Luminaries Penfolds, Leeuwin and Cape Mentelle have helped to canonize Australian grown Cabernet as a serious contender on the world stage. Shottesbrooke’s 2016 Cabernet reminded me of this, and with 93 and 95 Point scores, I wouldn’t hesitate to secure yours.
Hailing from the Langhorne Creek Appellation, which is located inside the Fleurieu zone, and is also home to the McLaren Vale region, Shottesbrooke’s 2016 perfectly expresses the area’s rich terroir.
The 2016 is loaded with classically styled, profound notes of eucalyptus, blue plums, juniper berry, and baking spices. The wine is intensely aromatic, wildly complex, approachable, and at our price, offers extraordinary value.
We seized an opportunity to work with Shottesbrooke’s 97 Point Eliza Reserve Shiraz last year, and although the wine sold in a flash, it made a grand impression on everybody who tried it. Re-order requests were abundant, due to the wines’ chillingly intense nature and substantial hedonistic style. As luck would have it, we just procured another shipment, and at a rock-bottom price….
Named after the founders’ daughter, Eliza is the top Reserve Shiraz produced by the winery and is produced only in exceptional vintages. They created this wine from an individual patch of vineyard on the winery’s McLaren Flat property that naturally produces tiny yields of high-quality fruit.
Due to low yields and high-demand for Eliza, only a limited number of cases make their way to the US. The wine is kept for 19 months in oak before bottling, and the 2013 vintage is brimming with vivid red berries, roasted meats, black chocolate, and spices.
Retails: $46.99
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“If you didn’t know about its Art Series sibling, you would be perfectly happy to accept this as a high class part of the Leeuwin Estate portfolio (which in a sense it is). A beautifully balanced wine, in terms both of its suite of stone fruit, citrus and pear flavors, and of the subtle barrel-ferment oak inputs. Its length is no less impressive.”
95 Points
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“From one of Margaret River’s leading Chardonnay producers, the 2015 Prelude doesn’t disappoint. It’s a nutty, smokey, toasty, melony beauty. Perfectly in balance, with a chalky texture and medium to light body, it wears its heart on its sleeve and is drinking perfectly now, but will gain more even more complexity with a few years in bottle. Drink now-2022.”
92 Points, Editor’s Choice
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