Sorby Adams The Vicar of Toft Barossa Shiraz 2022

Named in honour of the Reverend Augustus Crichton Adams, the Vicar of Toft in Cheshire in England from 1866 to 1882, the good Reverend married into the Sorby family before taking up his post. Winemaker, Simon Adams, is a fourth-generation descendant. The fruit used here is sourced from vineyards in the Ebenezer and Moppa sub-regions of the Barossa. Maturation was for three years in French oak hogsheads, 30% of which were new. The tight-grained hogsheads had spent four years air drying. They are from the famous French coopers, Francois Frere and Taransaud.  Under Diam. Opaque maroon with a dark purple rim, this is ripe and powerful with good concentration throughout. The nose exhibits notes of chocolate, black cherries, coffee beans, cocoa powder, fresh beetroot, warm soil, cold tea, mocha, mulberries, blackberries and, did I mention, oodles of chocolate. The texture is soft and supple. The wine has excellent focus and serious length. A cracking Barossa Shiraz for drinking over the next twenty years.The scary thing about this wine is that Toft is my mother’s maiden name, the family rather concerningly hailing from down the road to Cheshire, and if she ever finds out that we had a vicar in the family, it will most certainly reinforce her oft-stated opinion that anyone involved in wine has sadly lost their way and is destined to spend eternity in the hot place. Fortunately, winemaker Simon Adams appears to have no such demons in his family, and we can all enjoy this wine thanks to that.

Ken Gargett

Contributor at Winepilot

Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.

Wine writer and critic