Best’s Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz 2020

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

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

We’ve covered a great many vintages of Best’s Thomson Family shiraz on The Winefront site.

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 flame-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 excellent shape. Thus wine will mature (well) for pretty much as long as you want it to. 94 points.

Campbell Mattinson

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.

More about Campbell Mattinson

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
Previous

Onannon Robinson Vineyard Chardonnay 2022
Next

Maverick Ahrens’ Creek Ancestor Vine Shiraz 2021