Torbreck Runrig Shiraz 2017

Torbreck is a winery on a mission to become one of the world’s great wine brands. Since 1994, they have remained committed to creating exceptional Rhone-style red and white wines that reflect the very best vineyards in Australia’s famous Barossa region. Provenance is everything to them, and they believe that the Barossa is the most exciting place to make wine in the world. With a European sense of tradition, Torbreck pays tribute to the vineyards with minimal intervention, creating wines of richness, structure and length that age gracefully. The multi-generational growers, whose descendants arrived here nearly two centuries ago, are the backbone of Torbreck’s winemaking aspirations. They work in partnership with the people of the Barossa who grow their fruit, always aiming to get the very best out of their vineyard sites. At Torbreck, they constantly seek to understand the difference between all of these special places in the Barossa and how this combination of soil, climate and farming experience is reflected in unique grape flavors. They are simply custodians, enhancing the innate expressiveness of the wines and enabling them to reveal over time their individual origins and personality. Torbreck is actually named after the forest near Inverness, Scotland where the winery’s founder, David Powell worked as a lumberjack after completing university studies. The winemaking style at Torbreck is meticulous and dedicated to producing exceptional wines. They use carefully selected 225-litre oak barriques for maturation, known as Dominique Laurent ‘Magic Casks’. The oak is personally harvested from Forêt de Tronçais in Allier, and the staves are aged for 48 to 54 months at an exposed location for maximum seasoning. The staves are then hand-made into barrels and heated over three differing flames for several hours, resulting in a gentle toast due to the remarkable density of the wood. Torbreck’s winemaking style reflects their commitment to producing exceptional wines that reflect the unique terroir of the Barossa region. The Torbreck RunRig Shiraz is a wine that pays homage to the Highland clans “RunRig” system of communal land distribution. This system emphasized the communal element of the whole rather than any one farm, and the RunRig Shiraz embodies this philosophy by blending Shiraz from old dry-grown vineyards with Viognier to complement the strengths and complexities of each individual parcel of fruit, giving the wine a further dimension. The resulting wine has often drawn comparisons with the beautifully fragrant and tautly structured wines produced from the steep slopes of the Northern Rhône Valley’s Appellation of Côte Rôtie. With this wine, Torbreck has created a true masterpiece that embodies the spirit of community and the beauty of the land. The Torbreck Runrig Shiraz 2017 is a wine that will certainly reward those with patience. The Barossa had a cold and rainy winter in 2016, followed by one of its wettest springs on record, replenishing sub-soil moisture and setting the vineyards up for a healthy summer. Mild conditions during veraison and light rains in January and February 2017 were followed by an extended warm, dry Indian summer, creating perfect ripening conditions through to April 2017. This outstanding vintage produced bright, aromatic whites and intense, well-structured reds. Upon opening, intense, lifted aromatics of dense blueberries and blackberries and dark chocolate come to the fore with an opulent profile of mulberry plum and five-spice. The palate is plush and velvety textured with red cherry and stone fruits, clove and hints of dark chocolate. The complex layers and fruit characters continue to evolve in the glass with hints of ironstone, anise, blackberry and pepper becoming more persistent in the finish. The wine is a blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Viognier. It spent 30 months on new, second fill and third fill French oak barriques, completing a natural malolactic fermentation in the barrel and resting on fine lees throughout maturation to enhance texture. The wine has a deep garnet colour with a more aromatic vintage, lifted florals, red and black fruits, and earthy savoury complex undertones. The wine is medium to full-bodied. The gentle tannins will preserve the wine for the long term, while the texture is enveloping and well-balanced by fruit weight. This wine is a great candidate for cellaring for 15 to 20 years. As usual, the 2017 RunRig is approximately 2% Viognier. It spent almost 30 months in oak, 40% of which was new. Hints of peach or apricot appear on the nose, alongside notes of hickory smoke, cherries and baking spices. It’s full-bodied and concentrated but supple and silky enough to seem lighter in the mouth, showing tremendous length and elegance on the finish, where it adds nuances of cinnamon and cocoa. Joe Czerwinski, The Wine Advocate, 98 Points. Deep, dark red/purple colour and a