Many producers in the Barossa Valley have experimented for ten years or so with single vineyard wines. Most of these are produced in small volumes, often only available at cellar door, and quite expensive.
Over the years, I picked up some of these to learn about the Barossa subregions. Today I opened a 2005 Yalumba Swingbridge Vineyard Shiraz from Craneford, Eden Valley. The Eden Valley is one half of the Barossa, with the neighbouring Baossa Valley being the other half. The 90 year old vines of this vinyard are planted at an altitude of 400m and are expected to deliver some cooler climate characteristics. The wine does not disappoint.
The bouquet delivers scents of higher altitude Shiraz: violets and fragrant aromas. On the palate, blueberry flavours dominate, but there are also blackberry fruits and sweetness on the mid-palate. The wine is finely structured with soft tannins, which are not very noticeable on the palate, but strong enough to hold up the wine for close to ten years. The mouthfeel drops a bit on the finish, but the vibrancy of the fruit wins out overall.
You will not be able to find this particular wine, I suggest, but it might be worth while to track down similar wines.
Score: 93/+++
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