2019 Monopole, Shiraz, Hewitson, Barossa Valley

The 'mother vine' (a survivor of an 1853 planting) provided the cuttings which Dean Hewitson patiently built up to the point where grape production reached commercial levels. The wine is medium-bodied, with blackberry and plum to the fore and oak unimportant. You are drinking clonal history.

This is intensely floral with violets and dark roses, as well as very complex spices and blueberries. Whole-bunch influence is on full show here. Long and supple palate with spicy dark-plum and blackberry flavors.

One of the most interesting wines. So, here's the thing. It comes from a single one hectare vineyard at the winery with vine material sourced from one single shiraz vine in the Old Garden Mourvedre vineyard. Using a grafting process Hewitson has created a clonal vineyard directly linked to this old vine. The small bunches produce wine of wonderful concentration and intensity, yet with a suppleness and refined elegance. The wine in aged for 20 months in new and second hand barrels but it is mostly about the fruit and that old vine. Bright and balanced with a chalky grainy mouthfeel that provides such appealing texture. A super wine with every glass interesting and engaging. Cellar: 20 years.

Super-charged yet sophisticated and graceful, the wine shows dark berry, violet, wild thyme, game and cedary oak aromas on the nose. It's equally compelling on the palate displaying awesome weight and power, wonderfully framed by gorgeous silky tannins. Mouthfilling and engaging with a gratifying finish. At its best: 2025 to 2042.

From a single vineyard cloned from one lone æmotherÆ vine found in the Old Garden vineyard planted in 1853, the Hewiston Monopole Shiraz is a delicious drop; smooth and supple, with an intensity of bright fruit resulting from partial whole bunch; blackberries, black cherries and blueberries, complete with notes of herbal leaf, oolong tea and vanilla. The palate is smooth û a feature of all of DeanÆs wines û but with a slightly saline edge, savoury intensity midway, and structural acidity. The wine is long, with a decidedly grippy finish, and whilst drinking beautifully now will repay time in the cellar.

A haunting nose of dark red raspberries, vanilla bean and smoked salumi entice you in. The nose builds with aromas of maraschino cherries and roses. On the palate raspberries and roses collide and a fine, bitter chocolate tail of tannins signs off. This is an elegantly styled shiraz with flair. Give it time to flex its glories, and it will become mother's milk.

Grown on a one-hectare vineyard at Dorrien in the Barossa. 33% whole bunches, and matured mostly in new French oak. Cedarwood characters charge straight at you but they're more than matched by dark, blackberried fruit. There are meat-like aspects here too, and mint, and woodsmoke, though in general you'd call this seamless. It's not a creamy wine, it's a grainy wine, with twig, hay and bunch notes in there with the bold, ripe fruit. It's a different expression, in a good way; it will mature well.