If you’d asked me what my favourite red was back in the 1990s, when I first started writing about wine, it would probably have been an Australian shiraz. I just couldn’t get over how voluptuous these wines were – how ripe, how velvety, how silkily smooth. Tastes change, though, and as time went on I fell out of love with them – they seemed to become sweeter and jammier, or maybe I was just less tolerant of sweetness, plus they didn’t really fit in with much of the lighter, more plant-based food that I wanted to eat.
But the other week I found myself at a wine tasting, trying a run of mid-priced bottles, all around the £10 mark, and thinking what good quality and how reasonably priced the shirazes were. Not only that, but, quality-wise, they outstripped most malbecs at the same price point.
There’s a reason for this. Australia has too much shiraz – indeed, too much red wine – on its hands generally since the bottom fell out of the Chinese market after that country’s government imposed import duties back in 2020 and sales took a nosedive. Exports have since been made up elsewhere, but Australia still suffers from oversupply, a situation from which the UK, still Australia’s No 1 export market, is now benefiting. Although the average price is still just over £6 a bottle, sales of wines at £9-plus per bottle grew by 21% in volume in the year ending September 2023, compared with 7% for similarly priced reds from elsewhere.
Shiraz is also still Australia’s biggest-selling grape variety – it produces three times as much of it as cabernet sauvignon, though, it has to be said, there are some cracking Aussie cabs, too. (Rosemount’s McLaren Vale Cabernet 2021, for instance, which sells at an extraordinary £10 at Asda, could easily cost twice as much.) Why is there not more chat about it, then? For example, no one chose to show an Aussie red at the recent bunch tasting hosted by six of the UK’s leading independent wine merchants – I suspect because retailers themselves find that malbec is an easier sell.
But 2021, the vintage from which all the shiraz in this week’s pick comes, was an exceptional vintage (and, unfortunately for Australian producers, a record one in terms of size, too). The wines might still be relatively high in alcohol, but they’re far from being just fruit bombs with little or no residual sugar (that is, the sugar left after fermentation). I found myself thinking they’d be a great wine to put on the Christmas table, being easily able to take the kaleidoscope of flavours of the turkey, stuffing and sides in their stride, as well as terrific crowdpleasers for a party.
Five Aussie shirazes to rediscover
Asda Extra Special Great Western Shiraz 2021 £9.75, 14.5%. Big, rich, juicy, but not overly jammy shiraz. Good price, too.
Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2021 £10.50 Asda, £11 Tesco, £14.5%. The classic Aussie blend. Smooth, polished and great for a Sunday roast.
Robert Oatley Semaphore McLaren Vale Shiraz 2021 £10.50 Co-op, 14%. Despite being from McLaren Vale, this is more elegant Western Australia in style. Brilliant for the price.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2021 £14.99 (or £10.99 on mix six) Majestic, 14.6%. Mellow and smooth, with lovely, damson fruit. Looks and tastes expensive.
Sam Plunkett 1919 Plantings Shiraz 2021 £19.99 (£15.99 for Angels) Naked Wines, 14%. Pushing it a bit at the full price, as Naked often does, but if you’re an “angel”, £15.99 is more than fair for a gorgeously ripe old vine shiraz that winemaker Sam Plunkett reckons could last a decade.
For more by Fiona Beckett, go to fionabeckett.substack.com
