Pirathon ‘Silver Label’ Shiraz 2018

Another solid, well-built Barossa shiraz where the winemaker lets rip with Barossa power, but also brings forth a degree of elegance. The latter is delivered through lively red and black fruits with dried raspberry, dark plum and blackberry that lift the wine contributing an impressive fragrant complexity. Oak is on view but balanced with sweet vanillin, warm toasty notes. Tannins are sturdy but well-resolved and like the 2017 shiraz, alcohol is on the generous side hitting the scales at 15%. It carries it well.

This is the bold, generous expression of Barossa shiraz that many of us love. It is of a style to be sure but the quality and intensity of fruit – definitely the hero here – lifts it well above the average.

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