Michael Shiraz is Wynns Coonawarra Estate’s best-of-vintage Shiraz. The fruit used for this wine comes from the best vineyard sites in Coonawarra and is only made in years when the best quality fruit is available. The first Michael (then called Michael Hermitage) was a one-off from the 1955 vintage, made after proprietor David Wynn noticed the outstanding quality of the wine from two particular barrels and ordered them to be bottled separately. Named after David Wynn’s young son, this is a legendary Australian wine.

This super wine is made only in the best vintages, and this is a return after a short hiatus. It was first released with the 1955, and it has only been quite recently that it has become a more regular release. But that ’55 remains one of the fabled wines of Australian wine lore. There is a bright fresh cherry aroma supplemented with a liberal sprinkle of spices. The palate delivers with such finesse, yet as it opens it gathers momentum as it surges to a very long finish. One of the very finest in this line. Drink 2025–2050; Rating: 98 Points; Ray Jordan; Wine Pilot

Very deep, saturated purple/red colour. The bouquet is brooding and profound, savoury spice, graphite and oak-tinged aromas leading into a richly-textured, full-bodied palate of great depth and fleshy suppleness. Tremendous length and wonderfully mysterious depths. Lovely now but it will build and build over a long career. Rating: 97 Points; Huon Hooke; The Real Review

While a Wynns house style is quite clear with its Old Vines Shiraz, the Michael goes to another level to express its pedigreed story as one of Australia’s finest shiraz. Best of everything, I suggest, is where it starts, including fine details intended in the oak regime with 28% new French employed. The colour is a fabulous red to purple, aromas suggesting more savoury complexities out of the kitchen herb garden. Some understanding is required to read the style which doesn’t depend on being showy at this stage but layers dark cherry with flavour-lent spices on a palate that rolls out effortlessly. Read that as supreme sophistication now, and wait for 8-15 years to see the great reveal that history tells us will invariably occur. Drink 2024–2040; Rating: 97 Points; Tony Love; Wine Pilot