Following a visit to France where he studied the ancient pastoral practices of breeding the world's best chickens, Adam Marks gained the inspiration to create great Australian wines in the very same manner, adopting an artisanal approach to production, employing traditional, age old methods. Coq Noir is the flagship Shiraz by one of Victoria's most adroit, small batch producers. An opulent effort vinified from parcels of the most intense fruit, bottled without fining or filtration, which may deposit a harmless sediment, decanting is a must.

Following a visit to France where he studied the ancient pastoral practices of breeding the world's best chickens, Adam Marks gained the inspiration to create great Australian wines in the very same manner, adopting an artisanal approach to production, employing traditional, age old methods. Gold Label is the flagship Shiraz by one of Victoria's most adroit, small batch producers. An opulent effort vinified from parcels of the most intense fruit, bottled without fining or filtration, which may deposit a harmless sediment, so decanting is a must.

Powerfully structured Shiraz wines share a long history with the parched and challenging, craggy aspects of Victoria's western districts. Viticulture was established at Avoca in 1846, Shiraz has been the varietal of choice ever since. Pyrenees Shiraz is a solid, big boned wine with swarthy tannins, bold fruit characters and enthusisatic complexity. The accomplished team at Blue Pyrenees have trained their vines to yield small bunches of Shiraz with exceptional flavour intensity, for a wine of disarming richness, astonishing balance and elegant, stately charm.

A stylish high country Shiraz, from fruit grown to the envigorating cool climes of Strathbogie Ranges. Plunkett Fowles retain many of Victoria's most splendid high altitude vineyards, the long cool ripening seasons yield harvests of the most intensely flavoured grapes with exciting milled spice characters and refined, velvet tannins. A choice component is treated to a term of age in a curious collection of large, highly precious 500 litre English oak casks which are over a hundred years of age.

Black Jack was a yankee sailor who jumped ship and joined the Castlemaine goldrush of the1850s. He remains a part of local follore. The McKenzie and Pollock families named their property after the adjacent road which commemorates the legend of Mr. Jack, planting vines on the site of an old apple orchard in the 1980s. Redolent of spice and savoury fruits, sweet and juicy on the palate, filled of plums and ripe dark berries over a backbone of fine, sweet and toasty American oak, opulent and lingering, the defining articulation of Bendigo Shiraz.

Major Thomas Mitchell surveyed the area around Bendigo in 1836, excited about his discovery of bountiful pastorals, initiating a migration of squatters and settlers into the august terroirs of Harcourt Valley. Renowned for its arcadian splendour and largess of orchard fruit, Harcourt is wine country, home to some of the most outstanding Victorian vineyards. Major's Line brings the fruit of Harcourt together with choice Blackjack parcels from Heathcote and Bendigo, plum, allspice and juicy black fruits over a trundle of succulent, toothy tannins.

Blackjack has claimed the eminent M.Chapoutier Trophy for Best Shiraz at the prestigious Le Concours des Vinson on no fewer than three occasions. Block 6 is a superior parcel of distinguished vines, renowned within the Bendigo district for producing a very high quality, intensely fruit driven Shiraz. Whilst directly adjacent to the original Blackjack plantings, Block 6 features a unique soil profile and a different clone. Block 6 always displays savoury Rhone structure and style, as opposed to the identifiably Aussie genre of Shiraz produced by Blackjack Vineyard.

Pyrette is sourced from an impeccably positioned and managed vineyard near Colbinabbin on the Mount Camel Range. This special and unique individual parcel of vines which provides fruit is planted to the highest block over deep red, rocky Cambrian soils on a cooler easterly facing slope. The picking date is carefully assessed to capture a singular vibrancy and freshness in the fruit while retaining the mouthfilling richness and palate length so distinctive of Heathcote Shiraz. Production is limited to a precious 350 or 450 dozen each vintage.

There's good, there's better and there's Bests. The first Shiraz vines at the estate's St Andrew's vineyard were planted in 1930. The cuttings were sourced from the original 1860s plantings of Concongella Shiraz. Today these vines are still robust, producing intense spicy berries. A backbone of fruit from St Andrews is assembled with a component of good Shiraz grapes from the younger Salvation Hills site in the Grampians.

Outstanding Langton's Classification. Thomson Family Shiraz is produced from Henry Best's original 1866 plantings, only ever made in exceptional years, on average about six times a decade. The vines are cropped at less than two tonnes per acre and are meticulously hand harvested, selected and sorted. Thomson Family Shiraz was first made in 1993, one hundred years after the Thomson family settled in the area. It is produced predominantly from the fifteen rows of vines planted by Henry Best, referred to as Hermitage by Henry in his daily journal.

Sparkling Shiraz has been re-introduced to the Best's line up after almost forty years. Great Western is renowned for effervescent Shiraz, long known as Sparkling Burgundy since the early 1900s. Today's market is rediscovering the virtues of creamy red wines which can demonstrate the virtues of universal drinking appeal, good structure and fine texture. Australia can lay claim to this style as its own, completely unique, it has become Great Western's most profound contribution to the world of wine.

Given the scarcity of Best's prestige, limited release, old vineyard icons, Bin #1 affords enthusiasts their first taste of the Great Western Shiraz style and leaves them eager to discover more. A classic, cool climate, aromatic wine, floral and spicy, peppery and elegant, retaining vital Great Western fruit character. Very ready to drink upon release, in the enduring Best's style, demonstrating the unique splendor of Great Westen Shiraz. Bin 1 is a great accompaniment to fine food, the celebration of a century's history at Best's Great Western.

Excellent Langtons Classification. Bin 0 Shiraz is produced from the four original Shiraz plantings on the low yielding blocks of the historic Concongella Vineyard at Great Western. This includes nineteenth century and mid twentieth century plantings of Shiraz which yield meagre harvests of the most amazing quality grapes.

Excellent Langtons Classification. One of the nation's most enduring wines, vinified from hand picked and sorted grapes grown to the four original Shiraz plantings on the historic, low yielding Great Western blocks.

The partnership of Roger Milner and Jane Holt emerged out of a juncture in mineral exploration, eventually leading to vintages at Passing Clouds and Chateau Reynella. They selected a site just outside of the main nexus of Pyrenees estates to plant vines. Ironically settling on the very terrain operated a century earlier by a pioneer named Berry who had also planted Shiraz.

Bendigo's Maiden Gully has been producing outstanding and memorable Shiraz wines for over forty years. Balgownie have matched parcels of their most predisposed fruit with harvests of correspondingly amicable Shiraz grapes from splendid vineyards in Victoria's central districts and the Yarra Valley. A singularly generous, effervescent Shiraz wine with chewy tannins, full flavoured palate and engagingly spiced aromas. The Sparkling Shiraz of choice to accompany chocolate cherry desserts, game birds, juicy red meats or pork with rich sauces.

Shiraz vines were established at Balgownie Estate in 1969, followed by a second planting in 1974. The carefully selected site near Bendigo has provided excellent conditions throughout four decades, producing impressive reds since the inaugural vintage of 1972. Balgownie is most notable for its deep red colour, vibrant berry fruit aromas, subtle use of oak, velvety textures and fine, lingering tannins. A splendid match to crackling encrusted, succulently roast joint of juicy young pork.

The Balgownie experience with Shiraz dates back to 1969, when the original vines were established on a carefully selected site at Maiden Gully near Bendigo. A backbone of local, estate grown Shiraz is vinified alongside components from superior Victorian vineyards. The sturdy tannins and powerful ripe fruit flavours of Bendigo are enhanced by the spiced acidity and lighter plum character of terroirs further afield. A dash of Viognier contributes suppleness, alluring perfumes and a touch of apricot sweetness.

Glenrowan is a place of great natural endowments, it grows the finest fruit and hosted a famous gold rush. Glenrowan has remained quarantined from any exchange of viticulture since the 1890s, a felicitious quirk of history which has preserved the provenance of some great old vineyards. Varley is a compilation of the very best parcels Baileys Shiraz, treated to the time honoured traditions of open ferment, pumpovers and a course of extended age in the pick of fine French oak. Its impenetrable purple black hues, presage a prosperous palate of blood plums, bramble and dark earthen spice.

The Bailey's property at Glenrowan contains fifteen blocks of Shiraz, including some of the oldest vines in Victoria. Full bodied, traditionally styled, generous and august, yet marvelously approachable in its youth, after a term of fourteen months in a selection of French and American oak puncheons, characterised by its affability, seamlessness and style. Ripe plum and cherry fruit characters, enriched by dark licorice, espresso and malt, its robe of finely integrated oak and supportive length of gummy tannins, define a Shiraz of provenance and graceful old world charm.

Richard Bailey planted one of the first Glenrowan vineyards in the 1860s. The Bailey estate survived the downturn of the Victorian gold rush, the ravages of phylloxera and excesses of the Kelly gang, it endures to this day, producing some of the nation's most intensely flavoured and historically significant wines. A precious block of distinguished, dry grown old vines planted in the 1920s, yields a limited harvest of parched and concentrated Shiraz berries. The succulent red wine of choice to accompany the finest beef wellington or wagyu sirloin.

Pam and Richard Austin planted their first vines during the 1980s, in the Barrabool Hills southwest of Geelong, with a view to making super premium wines for Australia's best restaurants. The soils they turned were the same as those worked by pioneering Swiss over a century before, when Geelong was recognised as source of the finest Australian wines. The climate and rolling slopes of Moorabool Valley, the super soils and idyllic terroirs stimulate the vines into yielding intense Shiraz grapes with luscious plum flavours, cool climate spice and gripping tannins.

Under & Over is the way forward for Heathcote Shiraz, an impeccably balanced wine of individual character, complexity and charm. Under & Over are made according to a minimalist approach, the focus being on maximum expression of distinctive Heathcote Shiraz fruit character and heightened regionality. The winemaking team at Armchair Critic are well focused on appropriating the most intensely flavoured grapes to construct an excellent interpretation of early drinking Shiraz with outstanding depth of flavour and an impressively ripe, fruit filled finish.

The Fowles family have been at the centre of Victoria's commerce and development since early settlement. Founders of Bendigo Bank and Fowles Auction Group, they also established the first Victorian winery ever to win Great Australian Shiraz Challenge. The Fowles brand have continued to deliver with the most celebrated editions and memorable vintages, drawing fruit from the pick of their Strathbogie vineyards to be aged in the luxury of completely new oak, the first choice for service alongside flavourful game recipes, suckling pork or lamb.

Amherst is a town rich with colourful history and local folklore, site of the first official gold find in 1851, it launched a mining rush which expanded throughout central Victoria. The district's long association with viticulture is also prolific and colourful. Vines were planted here in the earliest days of settlement, many of the miners turned their efforts to winegrowing or constructing cellars for the burgeoning wine industry. A superior single site Shiraz from fruit grown to elite parcels, a mere hundred dozen, bottled with minimal fining and filtration to preserve the integrity of a great vineyard.

Vinified from parcels grown to splendid Pyrenees vineyards, fashioned to be a generously proportioned wine with generous weight of fruit and firm, meaty tannins. Grapes are all hand picked, destemmed and inoculated for several days of ferment, basket pressed into a selection of new and seasoned oaks for an extended term of age. Enticingly perfumed of violets and morello cherry, a palate entry of blackberries and plum, spiced chocolates and prune over a fine structure of dutch chocolate tannins, a fully fragrant finish of blueberries and bramble over refined vanilla pencil oak.

Positioned half way between Avoca and Ballarat, the modestly sized Amherst have only ten acres under vine. The small yields translate into extraordinarily structured, powerfully intense wines, brimming with fine aromatics and lined with silky tannins. Local folklore has it that a shepherd discovered gold at Daisy Hill in 1848, the region flourished and suitably arable parcels were planted to vine in the 1850s. The enduring, full bodied Aussie Claret style, supple and soft after fan extended maturation in quality oak barriques, thoroughly approachable as a youthful wine.