In the glass, this wine offers up red to black currant scents infused with black olive and dried herbs, followed by some earthy tobacco and stalky cedar notes. Medium-bodied, the palate has an even spread of blackcurrant and liquorice fruit underscored by toasty cedar, earth, subtle black olive and spicy dried herbs. Fine-grained tannins with a lingering conclusion. Matured in large and small oak barrels.

Tahbilk’s vineyards are grouped along the banks of the Goulburn River, a branch of it which flows through the estate. The vines are grown at around 134 metres above sea level on gently undulating and flat terrain. The soils are sandy loam with ferric oxide content, which varies from very fine sand near the anabranch to denser loams on the plains. Tahbilk has Shiraz vineyards dating back from the 1860s to the 1990s. The oldest surviving block is the ‘1860 block’; planted on its own roots in sandy soils, which has made it impossible for phylloxera to colonise the vine roots.