Château Tanunda 100-Year-Old Vines Barossa Shiraz 2020

Sets out to impress with some serious old vine magic on show. The Centenarians contribute deeply concentrated, complex fruit. Opens in heady aromas of dark satsuma plum, black fruits, pan forte, aniseed, baking spices, earth and olive tapenade, wedded to lashings of expensive French oak. What a luxurious entrance! The style is now well set. The wine moves with confidence, building in power and presence as we have seen in previous releases. Although it is sourced from a warm vintage in 2020, tannins hold firm throughout. There is structure but also plenty of life and energy. Feeds into a style very much associated with the Barossa Valley, living large and unapologetically opulent and textural with plenty of detail. Will age a treat.

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