Jasper Hill Emily's Paddock Shiraz / 2024 / 1.5L

Description:

The Jasper Hill Emily's Paddock Shiraz 2024 is a dense, tightly wound Heathcote red with a small portion of co-planted Cabernet Franc lending perfume and lift. This magnum of the 2024 is built for the long haul rather than immediate drinking, with fruit weight held firmly in check by structure.

Blackberry, cassis and dark plum lead, threaded with violets, licorice, crushed fennel seed and a graphite edge that keeps the aromatics serious rather than sweet. Air brings out red earth, dried herbs and a whiff of cured meat.

Concentrated but not heavy across the palate, the Emily's Paddock Shiraz carries ripe, fine-grained tannin and a firm acid spine that draws the fruit out long and savoury. Texture is the striking part — silken through the middle, then gripping on a finish that turns mineral and dry. From the dry-grown, biodynamically farmed vineyard at Jasper Hill, the wine has the coiled energy that marks the site.

Give it slow-cooked beef cheek, a rare rib eye over coals, duck with cherries, or a plate of hard sheep's milk cheese. The magnum format makes it a wine for a table of eight, not a Tuesday.

Drink from 2030 through to 2045, and expect a magnum to evolve more slowly than the standard bottle, so patience pays twice here. Decant several hours ahead if you open one young.