Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2021

Wines off the Crayères Vineyard in the Wrattonbully region serve as a reminder that terra rossa soils do exist outside of Coonawarra. Wrattonbully lies adjacent to Coonawarra and shares some of the distinctive ochre-red clay over limestone soils of its famous neighbour. The quality of Crayères Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz sourced off these soils is obvious. The Aussie red duo come to the glass, bright, fresh and purple-hued. The blend – 66% Cabernet, 34% Shiraz – exudes über-friendly Shiraz aromas, subtle and red fruited, with a touch of Cabernet-led earth and autumnal leaves with a light savoury influence. Less sweet fruited and spicy and definitely more dark cherry, bramble, earth and herbals to taste, concentrated and fleshy, with a warm embrace of oak. The palate is well defined in fine-knit tannins that persist, bringing good length. A classic style of Aussie Cabernet Shiraz producing a supple wine of some distinction. Seamless, too.

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