2002 Oliver's Taranga Vineyard Shiraz

Oliver's Taranga Vineyard is not a new comer to the wine industry, the family have been growing grapes in McLaren Vale since the 1840's. Today, the emphasis still remains on growing super premium quality grapes for other winemakers while only producing a small number of cases for sale under the Oliver's Taranga label. The Oliver's first arrived in McLaren Vale in 1841 and by 1843 were showing signs of prosperity. Statistics in the South Australian Almanac state that "he was William Oliver of Tea Tree Swamps and owned thirteen head of cattle." Shortly afterwards Oliver adopted the native name of Taranga for his property which subsequently gained a strong reputation for the quality of his beasts. Records show that William Oliver's first implements were a single furrow plough, wooden harrows and a scythe for hay cutting. Australia owes a great debt to these pioneering families who worked so hard to establish their farms. The Oliver family's big day out came on Sundays "when four bullocks were yoked to the wagon and the family proceeded across Long Gully, to the John Knox Free Scotch Church at Morphet Vale." After a few years most of the farmers established small vineyards and made wines for their own consumption, however, it is thought that "William Oliver was probably the first of the small makers in the Noarlunga or Seaview districts to make enough wine to sell on any scale." Today, William Oliver's legacy is nurtured by Don and Margie Oliver, who produce top quality fruit for a number of the countries top winemakers - in some vintages fruit from the old vines Shiraz goes into the world famous Grange Hermitage. Since 1994 the Oliver’s has selected a small parcel of his very best fruit and produced an exceptional wine. Produced from 100% Shiraz the fruit for this wine was sourced from three different blocks aged from 10 to 30 years old along with the Oliver’s old block planted in 1948. Matured in a combination of 33% new American & French oak, and 67% old American and French oak for 22 months.
A sensational Shiraz from McLaren Vale. Totally opaque black crimson colour with black crimson hue. The nose is superb with perfumed lift of violets, spice, white pepper, blackberry, dark chocolate and vanilla. The palate flavours explode, delivering concentrated flavours of black pepper, blackberry, vanilla, plum and spice with a touch of anise emerging on the back palate. Outstanding length and depth with fine grained perfectly balanced tannins followed by exceptionally long aftertaste of spice, white pepper, vanilla and liquorice.
Cellar: 5-8 years (2009-2012)
Alc/Vol: 14.5%