Nick Spencer Wines LDR Shiraz/Pinot Noir 2023

Gundagai is better known as a highway stop between major cities, enshrined in Australian folk song legend and home to the Dog On The Tuckerbox. Nick Spencer started sourcing fruit from this yet-to-be-household-name region over a decade ago and it’s a vital source of quality grapes. Here the LDR (Light Dry Red) is a 50/50 nod to an old Australian blend of Shiraz (Gundagai) and Pinot Noir (Tumbarumba and a little Gundagai fruit) seeing a renaissance. Deep garnet hue: serious nose of just opened dried cranberry packet, packed cherries in their juice, deep red English cabbage rose petal, ermine velvet, a little herby thyme, plum sauce, char and with vanilla pod licks and creamed coffee comfort. Elegance, etching, filagree, delicacy, style, class. Just medium weight but with such intensity of balanced flavour: neither variety dominates, but harmonises with the other.