The 2020 The Armagh Shiraz is sealed under Stelvin. While the cork trials continue, the main release in Australia is under screw cap. And thank goodness. The fruit! This is so good, with less oak, more skin and ductile tannin—really awesome, superior tannin. It’s been in bottle for 12 months, and it still looks like a barrel sample. It is amazingly fresh and tight. It's purple, blue, high-toned and super bright. It has 14.1% and matured for 18 months in 82% new and 18% one-year-old French oak hogsheads (300 liters) and puncheons (500 liters).

The vineyard that the fruit for this iconic Australian wine is sourced from was planted in 1968, giving us the benefit of over 50 years of vine age—a very good thing when we consider fruit tannin and concentration. In addition to the vineyard placement and vine age, Clare Valley benefits from a wide-ranging array of elevation (190 meters to 610 meters) with high diurnal range. All of this means ripe wines, tense wines, and powerful wines, which just about sums up Clare Valley. So, to this wine: The 2019 The Armagh Shiraz is complex, layered and spiced, with a multitude of hung deli meats and small goods packed in alongside the purple fruits and exotic spice. The wine is supple, for all the power, and unfurls over a long finish to show the muscle and might of this iconic wine. In a vertical of four vintages (2016, 2017, 2018 and this 2019), this has the second-highest alcohol of the lot, at 14.1%, showing that concentration and density doesn't have to come at the expense of finesse. I love this.

I thought that the 2014 had completely stolen my heart, but then there was this 2018 The Armagh Shiraz, bottled under Stelvin. This saw no American oak, as 2017 was the first year of 100% French. This is the first year with puncheons (no hogsheads) as well. It is so good, sensational, with a perfect fruit profile and orange oil character. It is fresh, beguiling, supple, intense, elegant, refined and full—all the good and important things in confluence here. It has 13.6% and matured for 18 months in 75% new and 25% one-year-old French oak hogsheads (300 liters) and puncheons (500liters). This is a superstar. The drinking window may be conservative—closure and winemaking could put this at 40 years with ease. And beyond.

The 2017 The Armagh Shiraz is really hitting its meaty straps at five years of age (in 2022). It has hoisin, salami, tobacco leaf and five spice in preponderance and shows a level of concentration in the mouth that aligns it with all of our lofty expectations of this vineyard. At 13.8% alcohol, it defies its muscular reputation and instead delivers us a medium-bodied, incredibly complex wine of poise and stature. Drink it from now and for the next 20 years with ease.

This offers a stunning mix of intense flavors, with notes of salted black licorice, black walnut liqueur, wild blackberry, bittersweet chocolate, cigar box and black cherry preserves that are plump and generous, yet balanced with firm, dense tannins, fresh loamy earth and malty Assam black tea on the finish. Harmonious, with a long, expressive finish, where a note of fresh mint lingers. Drink now through 2038. 40 cases imported.??–MW??Region: Australia / Clare Valley Select to Add