2019 Langi Shiraz

Very deep, concentrated red/purple colour, youthful and bright. The bouquet is powerful and high-impact, it bounces out of the glass, with pepper-spice and graphite, ironstone and blackberry aromas, while the flavour is intense and focused, concentrated and long, with power but not heaviness. The tannins are fine and coat the mouth, the richness of flavour ensuring it lingers long after the wine has gone. A spectacular Shiraz.

The Swiss clone, planted in 1969 and still on its own roots, is at the heart of this impressive flagship shiraz. It has a deep vein of ripeness of dark plum, aniseed, sage, lifted wood spices and blackberries. Taut across the palate in structure but velvety in flavour, it raises the question of when to drink. The answer: not just now, if possible.

There is a sense of enduring calm, resolute control and spiralling grandeur to Langi, even in the midst of the heat and drought that was 2019. A generous core of black fruits, spice and black pepper goes without saying here, as does a finish of grand persistence, but the real highlight of 2019 is a profound tannin profile, at once velvet-fine and yet with the mouth-filling embrace to hold endurance and promise.

The iconic Langi Shiraz, forty years after its first vintage. The times have changed and over the years so has the wine taking on an intensity and depth of fruit not out of place in Heathcote. This is a big, ripe Langi with plenty of volume and flavour. It’s deep ruby colour is backed up by a seriously intense core of dark fruits – blackberry, rocky minerality, blackcurrant and liquorice are well supported by 60% new, small French oak. The palate follows with lashings of sweet, rich fruit and mouthcoating tannins with warming alcohol helping to drive a long finish. Tannins are well integrated and give this wine the backbone to drink well over the medium term.

Harvested in the 1969-planted Old Block, the Langi Shiraz opens with notions of pepper, buttermilk, blueberry, smoke and graphite. With more air, the nose becomes ever more savoury and lifted. The palate is juicy with an inky edge of black fruit that is vivid with black pepper. Tannins are super smooth and ripe, yet freshness makes this swish and bounce, lending unexpected light footedness and agility for such a concentrated wine. This is driven and full of energy, toned, spicy and very balanced. Its 60% new French oak does not stick out at all. Fermented with 10% whole bunches.

This is a striking cool-climate shiraz that holds such poise, delivering blackberry and ripe plum with abundant spice and pepper tones, too. The palate has real focus and length with glossy, polished tannins carrying dark plum and cherry fruits

Powerful and layered bouquet showing aromas of sage, black pepper, dark plums and classic meaty nuances. Warm and rich, a lot of wine here.

This is so concentrated. The 2019 Shiraz Langi is intense, powerful and structural, but its real attribute is its austerity of line. It has ferruginous notes and graphite, with coal dust and crushed peppercorns, ductile and lithe and pliable somehow. This is clearly a wine to age, although if you dive in now, you will swim through the delights of forest fruits and wall-to-wall flavour. This is a very big wine, but not a wine to overlook on that account... This wine is revered for its legacy and capacity for aging. Patience is recommended.

Dense and succulent, with fleshy black cherry, blueberry and wild blackberry flavors that are framed by aromatic toast, smoke and sandalwood notes, backed by hints of palo santo and baking spices that linger on the velvety finish. Drink now through 2035.