Shaw + Smith is an alliance between cousins Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith. Their aim is to make contemporary, high quality wines that are outstanding examples of their type made from grapes grown in the Adelaide Hills. Shaw + Smith specialise in grape varieties suited to the cooler climate of the Adelaide Hills, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay & Shiraz.

There’s a lot going on here, that’s for sure. It’s a mesh of ripe blue and black fruit, grilled meat, pepper and spice, dried herbs and juniper berry, seaweed, and dried flower perfume. It’s medium-bodied, meaty and spicy, sweet fruit but also strewn with aromatic spice and herb, tannin is grainy and silty, and there’s something of an olive tapenade thing, and gentle bitterness of orange peel, almost Negroni-like, and the finish is long with plenty of grip and extract. Very good. As an aside, stylistically this might be called ‘Syrah’, though I like that S+S have stuck to the knitting and kept its Australian name. Tasted: Feb 2025; Alcohol: 14%; Price: $99; Closure: Screwcap; Drink: 2025-2035+; Rated: 95 Points; Gary Walsh; The Wine Front