Wine X Sam The Victorian Shiraz 2024

Has Heathcote written all over it. That colour! It is so Heathcote, so deep, so impenetrable in the darkest black purple hues. It’s an eye catching feature of the wine, but not the only one, as it goes about marrying Heathcote black hearted shiraz richness and generosity with well-crafted, confident tannins. At its heart is a wine of the land – rich, ancient red soils – reflected in the ’24 shiraz as an earthy base line upon which are layered blackberry, dark plum and blueberry fruits, woodsy spice, cocoa, hints of toasty oak. Arrives smooth and silky in texture, immersed in savoury earthy tannins and elegant in disposition, reflecting what was a cooler vintage. Has taken its 16 months in American oak and slurped it up, producing a subtle influence with an additional light peppery spicy edge. Offers good depth, good drinking and length, not to mention medium term ageing potential.

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