Stunning Shaw and Smith Single Vineyard Releases
- $93
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Shaw and Smith Lenswood Chardonnay 2018
Oh, my how these chardonnays from Shaw and Smith have evolved. This is an outstanding wine from this cool subregion within the Adelaide Hills that has proved ideal for chardonnay. This has been created as a more generous style while retaining the essential and defining cool climate edge to focus and align through to the extended finish. Layer upon layer of complex flavours is the hallmark of this cracking Adelaide Hills chardonnay with notes of creme brulee, nougat, lemon curd and light char revealing themselves. There’s an oatmeal citrus tang with dry savoury overtones. This is compelling and remarkable. Brilliant wine.
98 Points Cellar: 10 years
Shaw and Smith Lenswood Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018
The vines for this outstanding pinot noir are now more than 20 years old, providing such a brilliant basis for the wine. Wow it’s engaging from the start. Smokey stewed plum and black cherry notes with a trace of truffle oil and damp freshly turned earth all start to play out from the first moment on the nose. It’s immensely powerful with great drive through the palate which exhibits savoury, sour cherry notes with deeper richness of fruit cake and blackcurrant. Firm fine tannins and ample oak with a fine acidity help sustain the length and prepare it for further ageing.
96 Points Cellar: 10 years
Shaw and Smith Balhannah Vineyard Shiraz 2017
Here is a bright, high energy medium bodied shiraz from the Adelaide Hills. Shiraz from the hills can be somewhat underrated, but when you see a wine like this from the cool climes of the region you must wonder why. It is a wine of high fragrance and seductive perfumes with traces of red currant and smoky cedar. The palate is sublimely silky and plush with a smooth satiny finish. The oak has been well managed to integrate perfectly with the fruit and fine chalky tannins. To finish it has a brilliantly sustained finish with a subtle minerality.
95 Points Cellar: 8 years
Ray Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles were published in the early issues of national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s when he worked in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. From 1989 Ray wrote more than 3000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He currently writes a regular column for the special business publication Business News and is one of the main contributors to national wine platform Wine Pilot. In 2017 Ray co-authored The Way it Was – A History of The Early Days of the Margaret River Wine Industry and previously wrote Wine in the Blood: Australia’s Family Wine Estates, published in Mandarin and English. In 2011 Ray was awarded WA Wine Press Club Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the WA wine industry. His love of wine is as strong as his love of the blues and tasting the thousands of wines that cross his bench each year allows him to indulge in both.
