Torbreck Runrig Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016 (Australia)

Description

• French oak
• Dark chocolate
• Cherry plum & five-spice
• Firm tannins

"A blend of 98% Shiraz and 2% Viognier made just prior to bottling, the 2016 RunRig is a complete masterpiece. It kicks off with elegant notes of pencil shavings accenting blueberries and blackberries on the nose, then shows incredible, palate-staining intensity of fruit in the mouth. It’s full-bodied, plush and velvety without being unstructured and manages to be fruit-forward yet savory on the long-lasting finish, where it picks up hints of mocha and black olives. This should be drinkable with pleasure throughout its entire two decade life (it may live longer from cold cellars or in larger formats), but if I were lucky enough to have a bottle or two, I’d try the first one about 10 years out" Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"This is a great RunRig that will be wowing drinkers for a couple of decades to come. Very deep, dense, opaque colour, with lots of purple. It's very rich, ripe and fruit-sweet to sniff, with a powerful, lush palate filled with voluminous flavour. A colossal wine, thickly textured, with great flavour and potential. A tremendous wine that is lovely to drink now - but it's infanticide to open it just yet" Huone Hooke, Real Review, May 2019

"Restrained and elegant, opening up with ripe black and red fruit flavors. Touches of black licorice and black walnut liqueur plump up the sense of concentration. The tannins are dense but polished, never getting in the way of the harmony. Elements of clove and tobacco emerge on the finish. Shiraz and Viognier. Drink now through 2039" Wine Advocate

Intense, lifted aromatics of dense blueberries and blackberries dark chocolate all come to the fore with an opulent profile of mulberry plum and five-spice. A plush and velvety textured palate of red cherry and stone fruits, clove all interwoven with hints of dark chocolate. The complex layers and fruit characters continue to evolve in the glass with hints of ironstone, anise, blackberry and pepper all becoming more persistent in the finish. This densely textured Run Rig will certainly reward those with patience.

Despite a dry winter during 2015, rains in January and March 2016, freshened the older vines and provided long, slow ripening periods in between, which led to a stand-out vintage with high quality fruit.

The RunRig has often drawn comparison with the beautifully fragrant and tautly structured wines produced from the steep slopes of the northern Rhône valley's appellation of Côte Rôtie.

The Highland clans used a ‘RunRig’ system to distribute land amongst their clansmen in a series of widely dispersed holdings. The emphasis was not on any one farm but rather the communal element of the whole. Shiraz from old dry grown vineyards is blended with Viognier, complementing the strengths and complexities of these individual parcels of fruit, whilst giving the resulting wine a further dimension.