2001 Penfolds Shiraz Magill Estate Australia

Magill Estate Shiraz is a very important Penfolds' single-vineyard wine. It is of great symbolic importance because it is the only wine grown and made on the remaining 5 hectares of the original Penfolds property at Magill, established in 1844, in Adelaide's eastern suburbs. First made in 1983, Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz is an elegant, medium-weight style with velvety texture and fine tannins, matured in both new French and American oak. It is a sleek, contemporary wine, yet crafted in the old-fashioned way in the over 120 year old winery: hand-picked, vinified in open fermenters and then basket pressed. Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz has been packaged in laser-etched bottles since the 1997 vintage.

A season similar to McLaren Vale, just to the south, however, the crop ripened early and came in excellent condition before the March rain. Fruit was hand picked between February 12th and 15th, the earliest Magill Estate vintage on record. The fruit again benefited from the 'hands-on', open fermented, basket pressed approach, literally metres from the vineyard.

Lively deep crimson. At once both savoury and spicy. Nutmeg and plummy/dark cherried fruitcake aromas oscillate alongside notes of rum and raisin dark chocolate. Cedary French oak helps preserve the varietal and regional aromatic integrity of this single estate shiraz. A medium weight palate, with mulberry and wild raspberry fruits, tightly contained by satiny tannins that literally coat the whole mouth. Charming, balanced, and long lingering flavours, are courted by malty oak and ideal acidity. In the mould of the 1996.