Richard Hamilton Centurion Old Vine Shiraz 2020

This was everything I expect from premium McLaren Vale Shiraz – dark and powerful with round, ripe tannins and intense fruit concentration. But it was also a whole lot more. Ancient dry-grown vines, planted in 1892, offer up a seamless elegance. Aromas of perfectly ripe blackberries and black cherries are lifted by a pinch of white pepper. Subtle, beautifully integrated oak adds earthy baking spices.

On the palate there is a vibrant blueberry acidity that you get from fruit so perfect that it almost crunches when your teeth pierce the skin. It’s savoury at the same time, with minerality akin to freshly sharpened graphite drawing pencils. Wines like this are designed to age, and whilst it drinks beautifully now, especially with a quick decant, I look forward to the complexity it will achieve with a few more years in bottle. 

Nicole Bilson

Wine Critic at Winepilot

Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.

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