Angove Brightlands 2021

The Angove Shiraz flagship is in great form. The ’21 vintage was a stunner and the sourcing of fruit from one of McLaren Vale’s high points – 310metres high – sets the scene for a powerfully evocative – not to mention, precise – Shiraz. The colour is deep and intense with aromas sitting in the dark plum, ripe black fruits spectrum with dark toasted spices, dark chocolate and pan forte with hazelnuts.  A light savouriness is an intriguing, attractive note introduced to the palate. The complexity level is raised with fruit, herbs, earth and spice through a clever dusting of warm, cedary oak. There is volume, sure, but this is where that precision comes into its own. Flavours fill the mouth with Vale generosity and texture and warmth – and spice – but everything is just right.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic