A LABEL CLIMBING TO SUCCESS

INNOVATIVE Philip Shaw needs no introduction to those with a leaning towards premium-end wines, but he’s really gone outside the square with a 2005 Shiraz created for Climbing Wines at Orange – one of Australia’s highest and coolest wine regions located in the Central West of NSW.

In this wine he’s crafted a drop that’s classically European in style in its elegance and defined bright varietal fruit flavours, yet at the same time true-blue Aussie in its intensity and fullness.

Philip Shaw has had long connections with the unique Orange climate and topography, and as Climbing Wines’ Director of Winemaking made his first wines for the label in 2004; his 2005 Shiraz that’s just been released came from a growing season characterised by warm, dry conditions that gave low yields (just 6 tonnes per hectare) and a resultant intensity of flavour.

“We sourced our fruit from two prime blocks of the vineyard above 600m, one with limestone soil and the other with stony, red soil,” Philip says. “This combination allowed us to create a wine that’s characteristically Shiraz, although more raspberry than blackberry and more plum than mulberry, and at the one time both powerful yet elegant.”

It’s well priced at $19.99 for such a stand-out drop: ask your butcher to make up some pork, leek and bacon sausages, add a good dollop of mash and enjoy with this wine.