Taylors St Andrews Clare Valley Shiraz 2017

St Andrews Shiraz is often a big, mouthfilling and teeth-staining style of Clare Valley red – usually with a big whack of oak. They are the kind of wines that are built to impress. But in 2017 Taylors have dialled it all back and the wine is better for it, creating a more subtle and reserved expression of this well-known label.

The wine is quite deeply coloured and shows ripe mulberry and blackberry fruit which is made more appealing by layers of savoury complexity. There is baked earth, dried meat and spice with subtle oak sitting in the background.

It is then dry and mid-weight, the usual plush St Andrews fruits replaced by a more supple and compact wine with good concentration that finishes with hints of tobacco and licorice with lingering tannins. Food friendly, you could match it up with Shepherds pie or go all out with slow-cooked beef fillet.