2009 Heartland Shiraz

There are some painfully parochial wine lovers who refuse to drink anything besides South Australian Shiraz. Despite every effort to broaden their horizons, they just keep coming back for the same wines. (Heartland's premium, 'The Director's Cut' ($28) seemed to strike a special chord with this contingent). The situation is set to worsen. We loved the previous vintage of Heartland's entry level Shiraz and once again, Ben Glaetzer has fashioned a wine with an extra dimension of complexity that makes it stand out from the South Australian pack. 95% of the fruit was sourced from the Limestone Coast and matured in a majority new to four year old French oak hogsheads for 14 months.

It exhibits outstanding opaque black crimson colour with a deep black crimson hue. The nose offers good intensity with perfumed aromas of blackberry, liquorice, mint and confectionary. Richly textured , with an opulent mouth feel, the palate delivers superb flavour concentration for its price point. Generous ripe blackberry, dark plum and mint are followed by some confectionary notes and a spicy back palate. Very fine grained tannins. Excellent depth with long aftertaste of blackberry, dark plum, mint and spice. Since this wine landed two weeks ago, the 'SAS' (South Australian Shiraz) contingent has not bought anything else besides, and the sales staff are feeling somewhat despondent. In fact, they're now telling us that this wine is simply as good as it gets. Pays homage to the adage that the customer is always right. An amazing effort!
Drink over the next 4-5 years (2011-2016).
Alc 14.5%