This is iconic Australian Shiraz from the best selection of old vines in Lehmann's own Stonewell district as well as famed plots in Nuriootpa and Freeling. Dense, black-red in colour with a beautiful shiny polish lustre, the flavours of dark plum and chocolate ooze out of the glass, leading to a densely-knit structured and fleshy, round, balanced wine that has an incredibly long, full finish. It is a massive wine that has now arrived at its perfect drinking window, that will likely continue for another decade at least.
Released with five years of bottle age, the winery predict that this wine has a window of around fifteen years beginning in 2017!
Picked from the absolute top vines available to Peter Lehmann it always performs in the top tier of Australian wine achievement each vintage. However, in some vintages like the 1996, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2012 you get to see just how stratospherically high this wine's quality can attain.
Everything works, seemingly without effort, at the highest level - flavour concentration, structure, weight, balance, tannin, acidity, alcohol, length, mouth-feel, mid-back palate intensity, entry to the palate and finish that is almost gymnastic in its dismount. It's a wine that in some vintages has made hardened wine writers buckle and claim (as Matthew Jukes has done) that this is a "life-changing experience".
Give it a go if you can!
Lehmann's wines and their legacy are considerable. The story of the winery has reminiscences of the Vincent Lingiarri struggle, as grape growers in the Barossa were being deprived of their living by companies refusing to pay and honour contracts. Lehmann essentially saved the region by taking out a loan and building a winery to vinify the excessive amount of grapes harvested in the region.
The first wine was The Futures Shiraz, named as a commitment that Lehmann was giving to the growers' own future, as well as his own. Working this closely and successfully with vineyards in the region has given him unparalleled privilege in being able to source the best quality fruit available, and it's obvious that it isn't just saved for the best wine either: grape for grape, these are some of the best value wines from Barossa, year after year after year.
Region: Barossa
Country: Australia
Grape(s): Syrah
Style: Rich, Powerful, Iconic, Full, Dark, Broad
Best food matches: Red Meats, Pork, Pizza, Mature Cheeses, Lamb, Game, Fine Dining, Cheeses, Charcuterie, Beef
Alcohol: 14.5%
