Wine Reviews

Big Hill Vineyard Reserve Shiraz 2001

03 June 2003

The Bendigo district was one of the great 19th-century wine regions of Victoria, but the scourge of phylloxera put an end to viticulture there for nearly a century. Now reborn, it’s one of the most vibrant regions of all, with new labels popping up all the time. Big Hill Vineyard is one of them and their early products suggest this will be a name to watch in the future.

The reserve shiraz has lots of minty regionality with blackcurrant and juicy blackberry fruit character.

There’s a good dose of vanillin oak in the mix too, but it doesn’t completely overpower things. It has good body and plentiful long flavour with balanced tannins.

Perfect with Beef - 4 and a half stars

Ralph Kyte-Powell
The Age Epicure - Wine of the Week