Orlando Lawson’s Padthaway Shiraz 2015

If you don’t know Padthway, now is the time for a crash course in this region that can turn out some spectacular reds. Not far North of Coonawarra, Padthaway is regularly used to spice up some classic South Australian labels, such as Penfolds St Henri and Bin 389. While the wines are not as big and bold as those from McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley, they have got great personality in a more savoury and understated style. And the Lawson’s Padthaway Shiraz has always been a star of the region.

The 2015 release is deeply coloured and immediately approachable with its powerful mulberry and blackberry fruits plus violets and dried spice with an attractive saltbush edge, which is all wrapped up in a blanket of sweet vanillin oak. The wine is sturdy in the mouth – dry and mid-weight with chewy tannins and ripe fruit again with plenty of new oak. There is also some fantastic fruit complexity to uncover – tar, licorice, and spice adding to its drinkability. It finishes long and surprisingly supple making this a wine that is good to go now but also will cellar well.