Ulithorne produces small quantities of red wines from selected parcels of grapes from its estate vineyard in McLaren Vale, planted in 1950 by Bob Whiting. These rare and high-quality wines are crafted to always consider the fruit first – ensuring that the final wine celebrates all that is unique in the flavours and structure of the fruit taste, as it ripens in the vineyard.

The Avitus was created from a special parcel of single vineyard Shiraz that has been locked away for the long term by one of our Growers of a very old vineyard in McLaren Vale.  This elegant wine exhibits blackberry, cedar, plums, and mulberry on the nose. A rich palate with dark berries, mocha and dark chocolate. A refined structure with chewy tannins and persistent length.

From a Blewitt Springs site on sand over clay; 12 months in seasoned French oak. As the wines step up Ulithorne’s many-runged shiraz ladder, they seem to go up in concentration and plushness, the consistent theme a velvety, luxurious mouthfeel and refined tannins. Even with that intensity, the flavours still straddle the red zone – red plum and raspberry – if notably ripe, joining blackberry, black cherry, demi-glace and Dutch licorice, with ginger, clove and vanilla oak notes in support. It’s a suave and sophisticated package, and pretty hard not to like. Drink to: 2032; Date Tasted: Feb 2026; Alcohol: 14.5%; Price: $85.00; Rating: 94 Points; James Halliday Wine Companion

Sourced from Blewitt Springs within the great McLaren Vale region. It’s a region that produces such distinctive and classy wines, and this one is right on the money. Balanced, succulent, fresh medium to full-bodied fruit with older oak, allowing the beautiful fruit qualities to emerge. The blackberry and plummy notes of the nose are complemented with a spicy, slightly dusty character. Bright palate with a chalky tannin influence to the chocolatey black fruits. Excellent wine. Drink to: 2026-2035; Price: $85.00; Rating: 94 Points; Ray Jordan