Region:  Barossa Valley

Vineyard:  Filsell Vineyard

The Fruit:  The shiraz for this wine was harvested by hand from 80 year old vines on our highly regarded Filsell Vineyard, at the southern end of the Barossa, near Lyndoch.  These vines produce fruit with great concentration and power especially when the grapes are allowed, as in this case, to ripen to about 14º Baumé.

The Winemaking:  The grapes were crushed and the juice fermented down to about 1- 1.5 Baumé on skins over a period of seven days in five-to-seven tonne fermenters. After pressing, the juice was transferred to new American oak hogsheads to finish fermentation.  The wine was matured in these barrels for 24 months before bottling. It was then aged in the bottle for two-and-a-half years before release.

Tasting Notes:  With Meshach I am seeking the epitome of the Barossa shiraz style - a big, powerful, intensely rich and robust dry red with the potential to age for 20-25 years and develop enormous complexity.The 1998 vintage was a truly exceptional one in the Barossa - the best I’ve encountered in more than 30 years of making wine in the district - and produced outstanding reds with greater intensity and depth of fruit flavour than we’ve ever achieved before.This is a big wine in every sense. It has a big tannin structure, huge fruit but as always with Meshach showing vinosity rather than obvious varietal character, and great complexity from 22 months in new small American oak.