Best’s, Great Western (Victoria, Australia) Shiraz 2012

Best’s Great Western Shiraz is legendary among Aussie bottlings.  From the estate’s lovely setting in the Grampian Mountains northwest of Melbourne, Best’s has been producing balanced and complex reds for well over a century.  The Bin No. 1 Shiraz displays the balance and liveliness for which the estate is noted.  It offers ripe blackberry and black cherry fruit aromas enhanced by hints of blueberry, lavender, mint, cedar and spice.  The flavors are plush and rounded, but still lively and bright, with layers of blackberry and cherry fruit followed by subtleties of mint, vanilla, cedar and baking spice.  It is luscious and forward with bold fruit, but its overall lift and complexity allows it to stand out as a superior Shiraz, worthy of the Great Western heritage.