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Wine Details

Colonial Estate L'Explorateur Shiraz Barossa Valley Australia 2016 Deep, full and powerful with clean berry flavours and ripe tannin structure mean this wine, while drinking well now, will improve with another 5-6 years. £13.49

Producer

The Colonial Estate is owned and managed by Englishman and 'cult' winemaker Jonathan Maltus who made his name with St Emilion's Château Teyssier and its cult sister wines Le Dôme and Château Laforge. The Colonial Estate is comprised of a range of vineyards throughout South Australia's Barossa Valley and Eden Valley. The winemaking team comprises of Neil Whyte, Cyril Beziat (from Château Teyssier) and Scott Hazeldine, with Gilles Pauquet consulting, as he does for Châteaux Cheval Blanc, Figeac, and Teyssier. Maltus uses a number of methods unheard of in Barossa, home to some of Australia's most celebrated small producers. He imported all his winemaking equipment from St Emilion: wooden vats, barrels, triage tables and makes sure the wine is genuinely 'handmade' to the point of sorting the grapes both before and after destemming, ensuring nothing other than pristine grapes are placed into the vat. Colonial Estate is a new wine company in Australia, but by importing techniques and equipment from France, purchasing mature, old vine vineyards in great locations throughout Northern Barossa, Jonathan has created wines that show all the characteristic's of Barossa with great quality.

Grape varieties

Shiraz

Region

The Barossa Valley is Australia's best-known region. Situated an hour northeast of Adelaide in South Australia, it is famous for its red wine. Barossa reds leap out of the glass. These are packed with spice, tannin and rich fruit and classically have tar, leather and chocolate characters.

Style

Full-bodied with good chunky tannins that go down well with a rich hearty meal. You can tell these wines have seen oak by the toasty, vanilla aromas as opposed to full-on fruit. You’ll find Rioja and similar styles within this section.

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