Hewitson 1853 Barrel Shiraz Mourvèdre 2020

As the name suggests, this is an equal blend of the best barrel of Monopole Shiraz and the best barrel of the Old Garden Mourvèdre after their 20 months in oak. There is no denying that this is a big wine, living large, layered and rich. That said, it is not in the mould of the old school Barossa blockbuster. It weighs in at 14% alcohol. It gives equal time to the fragrant lift of Mourvèdre and the strength and depth of Shiraz. My immediate thought when I tasted this wine was, why don’t we see more Shiraz Mourvèdre blends? Spice, clove, pomegranate, juniper, rosemary aromas emerge against a background of red fruits and bramble. The integration of fruit and oak which comes with a lick of savouriness – this is a multi-layered wine – is quite tantalising. Plenty to tune into and contemplate here.

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