About this WINE
Redbank
Redbank’s badge, the Anvil, is a sign of times gone by when early settlers handcrafted their farming implements with the heat of the blazing forge and the strength of the anvil. This strength was apparent in the hard working migrants who established a thriving farming community in the rugged High Country of North East Victoria.
Today a small, select “family” of growers, some direct descendants of the original pioneers, produce premium fruit for the wines of Redbank. Vineyards that are lashed by blizzardly cold winter winds and buried in snow for part of the year emerge at harvest with grapes of the highest quality that enable the Redbank winemakers to produce superb cool climate wines.
The winemakers and viticulturists work closely with a dedicated "family" of carefully selected independent growers. These small family-run vineyards offer unique and subtle soil and altitude differences that provide our winemakers with an opportunity to create distinctive wines reflecting the finest attributes of the regions. Our fruit for the Long Paddock and King Valley wines is sourced from high-altitude vineyards in Victoria’s high country, from the Alpine, King and Ovens Valleys and other premium Victorian regions.
The magnificent 15 hectare Myrrhee Ridge vineyard has been added to the Redbank portfolio. This uniquely located vineyard in the mountain range which overlooks the township of Whitfield in the King Valley has supplied premium fruit for Redbank wines since it was established 10 years ago.
The flagship Shiraz, The Anvil, is crafted from fruit from the Beechworth region. Beechworth has long been recognised as a classic Shiraz region. The individual vineyard from which these grapes are harvested contains dark red clay soils, and this, combined with an ideal climate for this variety, produces a wonderfully stylish and rich red wine. These are two very different wine growing regions.
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
This is a great example of the cool climate style of Shiraz from Australia that is in contrast to the blockbusters from the Barossa. Redbank wines are made from fruit grown by a handful of dedicated growers in the high country of Victoria – King and Ovens valleys, including the rather inappropriately named Nick Dry, whose Shiraz grapes go into this wine.
These upland vineyards are bitingly cold in winter, with the growers often pruning vines with snow underfoot,as a result of the altitude – up to 2,500 feet above sea level. The Long Paddock Shiraz contains a little Sangiovese, the great grape of Chianti, to give tannic structure and a herbal complexity to the wine, which is matured 1/3 in old oak, 2/3 in stainless steel over 9 months to maintain the bright fruit character of this cool region.
Shiraz 95% Sangiovese 5%
Martin Hudson MW, Wine Buyer
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