Grant Burge, Meshach, Barossa 2016

The 2016 Meshach Shiraz is a blend of several old-vine parcels located between Rowland Flat and Tanunda and yields that average between one and two tonnes per acre. Matured a year and a half in 18% new French oak hogsheads, with the balance from second to sixth use, it exhibits aromas of cigar box (vanilla, cedar and spice) alongside ripe blackberry and mulberry fruit. Full-bodied, velvety and rich, it's tannic and built to age but isn't entirely unapproachable. With its concentration and length, it looks to have solid aging potential—up to 15 years or more.

The next step in the evolution of Grant Burge's flagship wine shows less oak influence and more powerful fruit doing the bossy talking. The nose presents a sweet, high perfume of red and purple berries rolling around playfully with vine leaves. There is a massive wall of fruit on entry – all purple mulberry and iodine – before secondary characters peek through; spice and chocolate, tobacco leaf and a lick of cassis. Deliberately built to be big, it has the right carriage to carry such a hefty load. The palate remains especially tightly wound, suggesting that much more is still to come.