The 2020 Curtis Ancestor shiraz hits you from the first sip, I was surprised as I generally do not purchase reds from McLaren Vale based on previous experiences. When my contact from United Cellars phoned me to offer this premium McLaren Vale shiraz for a very good price, I was willing to give it a go. They normally offer pretty decent selections, they are well informed as they are involved in frequent tastings.

This is not a bottle of wine I would normally select, so naturally I did have some slight concerns. This is exactly the reason I am with United Cellars, I get the opportunity to purchase premium wines at discounted prices. Ok, so what does this shiraz offer? This hand picked wine is from 80 year old vines and cold soaked for 14 days with the grape skins. The juice was further fermented for 14 days allowing tannins and colour to permeate through before being pumped into French and American barriques for maturation.

For me, I associate the McLaren Vale region with their top class white wines. I have previously tried reds from McLaren Vale but they were really not to my liking. I am not saying they were bad, taste and preferences are very personal and for the price, they were not for me. Maybe I have been a little harsh on the McLaren Vale region for red wines, my previous experiences with the region should not influence my future decisions. This shiraz has excellent berry flavours, vanilla overtones from the American oak and chocolate overtones.

Much to my embarrassment, we went to a local hawkers hut restaurant where I intended to open a bottle to review, however, we have a cork and no corkscrew handy. I always have a corkscrew handy, I normally keep one in the glovebox of my car. For some reason I took it out and on this occasion I was caught out. I had to run to my local bottleshop to purchase a screw-top to consume in its place, this was pretty disappointing. So I had to wait over a month to finally pop the top on this shiraz, it was worth the wait.