Best’s Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz 2020

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Best’s Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz 2020.

Best’s Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz 2020
$250, 14% alcohol, screwcap, Great Western/Grampians.

Grampians shiraz at its best is never ‘big’ or overly bold but that said, this release of Best’s fabled Thomson Family Shiraz – which was grown on vines that were, remarkably, planted in 1868 – is a wine of quite some substance. It tastes of black cherry into flasme-grilled plum, cedarwood and mint, vanilla cream, potpourri and peppercorns, the latter edging gently into pure, cracked, black pepper territory. There are gentle notes of both undergrowth and leather running beneath the main stream of flavour and while tannin isn’t a key feature of the wine, there’s enough firmness here to lend the wine a keen sense of shape. Thus wine will mature (well) for pretty much as long as you want it to; it has the balance to live long term. 94+ points.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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