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 Prospera displays a dark ruby-red colour tinted with a crimson rim. On the nose, the aromas are brimming with plentiful ripe fruits of cherry and strawberry, followed by fine spices and florals. The palate presents a fruit-driven wine with characters of fresh cherry and juicy plum, ascended by hints of cinnamon and liquorice. This concentrated, yet elegant wine is wrapped in layers of silky tannins, with a full body that is beautifully balanced by medium acidity.

The distinctive dusty ironstone characters of Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale are immediately evident. The style from this subregion is always more restrained and linear with grainy sinewy tannins and precise focused fruit. Has a grainy chalky mouth feel with flavours of black cherry and blackberry spruced up with a liberal sprinkle of black pepper. Love this style. Drink: 2024 - 2034; Price: $50.00; Rating: 95 Points; Ray Jordan

Shiraz with plenty of sauce. Sweet blackberry and plum flavours come liberally adorned in smoky, bacon-y oak. One sip and you’re either in love or aghast; its persona is immediately and overwhelmingly apparent. The fruit here, the juicy sweet flow of it, and the oak, so silken and smoky at once, make for pretty sexy drinking, depending of course in your tastes in wood. One thing that should be emphasised here though is that the fruit feels fresh and flowing; it’s not heavy/hot/overdone. Tasted: January 2023; Alcohol: 14.5%; Closure: Screwcap; Drink: 2024-2030; Rated: 93 Points; Campbell Mattinson; The Wine Front

This is a reliable address, responsible for full-weighted and powerful wines of considerable refinement, if not an older school aura. Barrel-fermented aromas of smoked meats and vanilla curd are toasty and intoxicating. Dank spice and dark plum, mosey amidst the morass. Clove, pepper and cardamon spruik a spicy finish. A throaty, nourishing wine of appeal. Drink to: 2032; Price: $50.00; Date Tasted: Feb 2023; Alcohol: 14.5%; Rating: 92 Points; Ned Goodwin MW; James Halliday Wine Companion