Irvine Spring Hill Shiraz 2024

Shiraz from Irvine's Spring Hill range in the Eden Valley, the cooler high country above the Barossa floor, and it shows: cherry and spicy blackberry aromatics with dark plum, liquorice and a light peppering of fennel, over a juicy, supple palate with fine tannins and a gentle touch of vanillin oak. Medium to full bodied, made to drink over the next few years rather than bury in the cellar.

Irvine farms six family vineyards spread between the Barossa floor and the Eden Valley hills. Its Eden Valley block, Haslemere and Spring Gully, sits on sandy loam studded with quartz and ironstone over a clay base. Brian Miles and Robert Wade planted it in 1993, and it carries shiraz alongside riesling and cabernet.

The family's shiraz roots run deeper than that. Henry Winter Miles put the first shiraz vines into Brian's Block at Angaston in 1867, on deep loam over clay. Ben's Block at Penrice still carries vines around 120 years old. Spring Hill is the entry point into that history, made fruit-driven rather than oaky.

The winery calls it a drink-now red that will cellar for several years. Its own food matches are rump steak, lamb chops or kangaroo loin, and grilled mushrooms or a lentil stew if you are skipping meat.