"The particularly rare Best's Thomson Family Shiraz is one of Victoria's greatest wines and represents a window to Australia's winemaking past. Like Henschke Hill of Grace and Penfolds Block 42 in the Barossa Valley, the Best's Concongella Vineyard 1860s plantings at Great Western belong to Australia's rich heritage of ancient genetic and pre-phylloxera vineyards. The fifteen rows of dry grown Shiraz vines, well over 140 years old, are the source material for the Thomson Family. It is a rich, generous wine with brilliant blackberry meaty fruit underpinned by cedar oak and gravelly tannins. The wine is open-fermented in small ‘tubs’ and then matured in a 50/50 combination of new and old American oak for approximately 24 months. "Andrew Caillard MW
