Our fourth release of Rare Game Shiraz celebrates the quality of two great Hunter Valley terroirs – the Tinkler’s (ex-Lindeman’s) 1948 block, and Somerset (1970). Once again, I pursued my love of what I believe to be the reference style of Shiraz from this region – ‘Hunter Burgundy.’ Subsequently, the bottled wine is just 12.9% in alcohol. Achieving this level of fruit quality at such modest baumes is a tribute to the pedigree of the source vineyards and the work of passionate growers.

In the winery, we fermented in open tanks. Running these ferments at higher temperatures is as important to the style as the selection of which French oak the wine matures in. Once again, the only new oak our Rare Game Shiraz sees is tight grained puncheons, exclusively from the St. Martin cooperage - 33% new with maturation over 16 months.