Best’s Great Western is releasing the Thomson Family Shiraz 2020 ($250) on Thursday 1 May.
Sourced from 15 rows of gnarly old Shiraz vines planted in 1868 by Henry Best, the wine is only made in exceptional vintages.
“It’s a sentimental wine, made from some of the oldest living Shiraz vines in the world,” chairman Viv Thomson OAM says.
“We’re acutely aware of our responsibility as custodians of these special old vines – they play a significant part in Australian viticultural history.
“To release wine from 157-year-old vines that continue to bear fruit is truly remarkable.
“We feel honoured to still be working in the same vineyards that generations before us have nurtured, and we can now lovingly craft these small parcels into an elegant and all-encompassing wine.
“We’re so proud to release this tiny piece of history.”
Viv describes 2020 as “exceptionally challenging” year.
“Aside from the pandemic – bushfires and drought were also contended with,” he says.
“It was a low-yielding vintage, but the reward is evident in the great intensity and flavour this wine offers.”
Thomson Family Shiraz was categorised in Langton’s 2024 Classification VIII as ‘First Classified’.
The 2014 vintage was awarded Halliday Wine of the Year.
Halliday said, “Effortless and graceful, it’s perfect.”
Viv says that with five years of bottle age, the 2020 vintage is drinking beautifully, but those with patience will continue to be rewarded as it ages.
The 2020 marks the 18th release since the first 1992 vintage – named ‘Centenary Shiraz’ to celebrate 100 years of the Thomson family being custodian of Best’s.
Henry Best recorded these vines as ‘Hermitage’ in his journal.
They are now known by the CSIRO as the ‘Concongella clone’ or ‘Best’s Old Block clone’ and serve as the mother vines for all of Best’s Shiraz plantings at Great Western.
The vines are on the Thomson Family Block, in the Concongella Vineyard.
The dry-grown vines have roots that penetrate several metres down into the earth, bringing extra complexity and intensity.
The vines yield less than two tonnes per acre.
The fruit is meticulously hand-harvested, hand-sorted and selected with traditional winemaking methods honoured in the winery including hand plunging the ferments in small open fermenters.
It is aged for up to 18 months in French oak with only 20 percent new oak used.
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