Two Hands, Barossa Valley (Australia) Shiraz 2020

 Winemakers generally proclaim there is no one “recipe” as to how they make wine.  But for those who are specialists in one grape, such as Michael Twelftree has been with Shiraz since he founded Two Hands in 1999 as a négociant-style producer, the best of them give their wines a signature – a similar profile for each wine while allowing vintage and terroir to do their work in providing small and large differences between wines.  In a recent tasting of six Two Hands wines coming from three different regions, two different vintages and price tags from $29 to $131, each wine immediately showed an opening core of almost creamy black raspberry flavors followed by a dry savory component and a very tangy, tannic finish with no hint of alcoholic heat.  The “Coach House Block” is the most-sophisticated of the six, although sophistication is probably not a designation Twelftree would chase.  It is the most Bordeaux-like in structure, with some chocolate hints, smooth savory notes and a lightly tart, satisfying finish with well-integrated tannins.