Collector Marked Tree Shiraz 2018

The Canberra District had ideal growing conditions in 2018, low disease pressure and lovely warm days giving winemakers plenty of reason to be happy. Why do I mention this? Well it’s significant in relation to this wine. Where most winemakers would push for greater ripeness looking for fuller body and power, Collector winemaker Alex McKay has opted for elegance over richness. In a season like 2018 it would have been easy to push ripeness and alcohol levels past 14% but the Marked Tree Shiraz weighs in at a modest 13%.

It shows in the wine, the fruit flavours are in the red crunchy end of the spectrum and there’s obvious savoury spice here too. It’s perfect in this way as a far more interesting wine has emerged; I hate to use the term but it’s complex. It unwinds in the glass, initially it’s shy and savoury with notes of tar and pepper, but as it opens up, the red raspberry and redcurrant fruit shines through. Made with a view to earlier drinking, I suspect there’s reward for cellaring over the medium term as well. A food match? Steak sandwich on sourdough with a good relish and rugula.

Fergus McGhie

A native Canberran, Fergus is a wine fanatic who happily works in one of Australia’s finest small vineyards right in his own back yard. His fine dining restaurant training proved more useful and nearly more interesting than an arts degree at the ANU and a love of wine followed. Vintages as a cellar hand removed the mystique but didn’t quell the love. As a wine retailer, Fergus learned there is always another great wine around the corner and as a wine writer for The Canberra Times he learned that the stories behind the wines make them taste better. An occasional show judge and snowboarder, he has a guilty love of simple, uncomplicated wine, craft beers and a well-made Negroni.