Penfolds, Magill Estate Shiraz 2020 - 75cl
Ninety percent of what Penfolds bottles is blended across regions; Magill Estate Shiraz breaks the rule. Every grape comes from a single vineyard eight kilometres from Adelaide's centre, one of the few working vineyards on earth inside a city's boundary, then crushed and matured at the original 1844 winery a few steps away.
The 2020 is medium-weight rather than a blockbuster, which is the point. Fruit off these old terraced rows carries lift and detail, and the winemaking keeps a light hand: eighteen months in French oak, part new, alongside seasoned American hogsheads that add breadth without sawdust. The result reads as a single place spoken clearly rather than a house style assembled from many.
Deep crimson in the glass. The nose opens on mulberry and dark chocolate, redcurrant and liquorice underneath, a thread of vanilla from the barrel and a faint eucalypt note that pins it to the Adelaide hills fringe. The palate runs on blackberry and damson, carried by fine chalky tannins that turn faintly bitter-sweet at the edges. It finishes firm and mineral, the sweet fruit holding on well past where you expect it to fade. Drinking beautifully now with air, though it will hold and deepen through the late 2030s.
How to Serve
Pour at 16-17°C in a large Bordeaux glass. Decant for around 30 minutes; the tannins knit and the eucalypt lift settles into the fruit.
Where to Drink It
Scott's, Mayfair - grand room, serious cellar, a bottle that earns the setting.
Brat, Shoreditch - live-fire cooking that meets the wine's smoky edge head on.
Wiltons, Jermyn Street - old-school game and claret territory where Shiraz sits happily.
Food Pairings
Give it a rack of lamb cooked over coals, the fat catching a little char - the wine's mineral spine cuts straight through it.
