Tyrrell’s Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz 2019

While the history of Tyrrell’s wines and the Rufus Stone goes back a depressing twenty-five years (I say, depressing, as I am old enough, just, to remember when it began), the link goes a little further. According to legend, around a thousand years ago, King William II, known as Rufus, was killed by “an errant arrow” fired by Sir Walter Tyrrell, ancestor to today’s famous winemaking family (I’m a bit surprised to learn that there were any descendants if the family knocked off a King – regicide was not traditionally met with mercy). Apparently, the Rufus Stone marks the spot. It is also the named attached to their Heathcote Shiraz.

The result is, of course, a very different style of Shiraz to their much-loved Hunter examples. The wine spent eighteen months maturing in a mix of oak, 20% new. The colour is a magenta/purple. A lovely plush nose with lifted aromas of dark cherry and licorice, plums and raspberries. A soft palate with gentle tannins, although no question that this is a full-throttle wine with flavours out the wahzoo. Excellent length and a wine which lingers beautifully with delightful cassis notes on the finish. Delicious now but will easily see out, and improve, during the next decade if you prefer.