2005 Heartland Directors Cut Shiraz

Country: Australia
Region: Langhorne Creek & Limestone Coast
Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: €19,00
Closure: Cork

I plan on moving back to Australia within the next two years so I am busy trying to sort of the wines to drink, give away or move with me. It's an interesting job as you find wines hidden away in boxes that you forgot you had purchased. This was one of them, a single bottle of the 2005 Heartland Directors Cut Shiraz.

Heartland Wines is the creation of a small group of South Australian wine identities and friends who all share a passion for making great wine; second generation winemaker Ben Glaetzer and wine industry professionals Grant Tilbrook and Vicki Arnold. All the wines are made by Ben Glaetzer a member of a family as synonymous with the Barossa as Shiraz.

The Shiraz grape was brought to Australia by the father of the Australian wine industry, James Busby, in 1832. Since then it has become the "Australian" grape and has been the driving force behind the industries amazing growth over the past ten years or so. Australia is also home to some of the oldest shiraz vines in the world with a number of wineries having vines older than 100 years.

This wine is Heartland's flagship wine and is 100% Shiraz produced from fruit grown in Glaetzers own vineyards. In this case 60% of the final wine is Langhorne Creek fruit with the remaining 40% coming from the Limestone Coast. Here is what I thought of it:

Dark, deep and dense opaque purple in colour. Great nose with plenty of dark plum and berry fruit along with some coconut. The palate is big and full-bodied with plenty of upfront, almost velvety, fruit. Ripe rich plum, peppery spice with a fair dash of oak. Really good fruit concentration and intensity. Tannins are there but are not too obtrusive. The finish is quite lengthy with spicy dark berry fruit. I really enjoyed this even though it really deserved some more time before consumption.