Firm in texture, showing tightly wound tea leaf-accented blackberry and dusky spice flavors coming together on the expressive finish, with crunchy tannins. Needs cellaring. Best after 2015. 300 cases made, 25 cases imported.??–HS??Region: Australia / McLaren Vale Select to Add

With a deep garnet purple color, the 2010 The Little Venice Single Vineyard Shiraz offers a fruit-forward nose of ripe black cherry and blueberry notes intermingled with baking spices, star anise and chocolate box aromas. This medium to full-bodied wine is well-poised in the mouth, has a medium to firm level of rounded tannins and lively acid that gives a backbone to the expressive fruit, and has great persistence on the finish. It is approachable now and will drink to 2023+. Importer: Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA, www.oldbridgecellars.com

Focused, tight, harmonious and complex, offering a straight shot of cherry, tobacco, mineral and spice flavors that keep singing through the long, vivid finish. Best from 2014 through 2020. 200 cases imported.??–HS??Region: Australia / McLaren Vale Select to Add

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2009 The Little Venise Shiraz has notes of creme de cassis, earth, mocha, damp loam, musk and moss with nuances of truffles and iron ore. Very full bodied and densely packed in the mouth, it has a firm level of chewy tannins, crisp acidity and a long and earthy finish. Approachable now, it should open further in a year or two and drink to 2022+. The d’Arenberg winery is 100 years old with a fourth generation Osbourne in charge today of this now considerable operation. Graduated from Roseworthy College in 1983, Chester was expected by his father to change things when he took over the family business. Instead he went back to tradition rather than modernizing. In the d’Arenberg vineyards there is no cultivating, fertilizing or herbicides used – Chester compares these artificial means to growing plants hydroponically. Looking to continually improve the root systems of his vines, he rarely irrigates. Average yields are 1.7 tons per acre. “2011 was actually a great year for us,” Chester informed me. “We didn’t have any problems with rot.”Importer: Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA, www.oldbridgecellars.com