Di Fabio Bush Vine Reserve Shiraz 2018

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of di fabio bush vine reserve shiraz

Di Fabio Bush Vine Reserve Shiraz 2018
$80, 14.8% alcohol, screwcap, McLaren Vale

I tasted this wine alongside its 2016 equivalent (both $80) and of the two, this is the fuller and richer wine. Indeed it’s a better wine all around. It’s a full-bodied shiraz with blackberry, sweet plum, milk chocolate and various dried herbs characters washing confidently through the palate. It shows some leathery/dusty development – it’s nearly seven years old, after all – but the fruit is still robust and in control. The other distinguishing feature about this wine is its tannin; it’s well balanced in general but there’s quite bit of pucker to this wine, which help lend it an air of seriousness. This wine will drink well for at least the next handful of years. 93 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. 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; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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Di Fabio Bush Vine Reserve Shiraz 2016