Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz 2004 McLaren Vale South Australia

$69 $87

This is great……and here’s why!

90/100 - Tom Cannavan
91/100 - Wine Spectator
92/100 - Wine Enthusiast
95/100 - Jeremy Oliver
92/100 - Huon Hooke
91/100 - CellarTracker
91/100 - Stephen Tanzer

Blue-Gold & Top 100 - Sydney International Wine Competition

Wine Enthusiast - "Epitomizes the lush, immediately approachable style, with a mouthfeel so creamy it almost seems liquorous or syrupy. The flavors are ultraclean and precise, marrying crème de cassis with vanilla and hints of coconut. Soft tannins cushion the long finish."

Jeremy Oliver - "A luscious, long and stylish modern shiraz steeped in musky, spicy aromas of blackberries and plums, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon with an assertive but finely integrated background of smoky fine-grained vanilla oak. Its smooth and chocolatey palate of concentrated, briary fruit and spicy oak finishes with savoury, dark olive notes and minerals, plus a lingering core of black fruits."

Tom Cannavan - "Quite earthy and savoury at first, with a very firm, liquoricy black fruit character. This is massive in the mouth, withy plenty of dark, sweet fruit, some black olive notes and massive tannins."

Huon Hooke - "Very much on the opulent side of town, this shiraz has concentrated sweet-fruit aromas of plum-jam, aniseed and chocolate. It's big, dense and chewy in the mouth with heaps of flesh"

James Halliday "It all began when a group of medicos decided to realise a lifelong passion -creating a wine from bare earth and sunshine. The earth was found at McLaren Vale, one of South Australia's premier wine regions, renowned worldwide for its Shiraz and other red wines....Between them and their families Fox Creek Wines was born and they could not have imagined what a success their venture would be! In 2009 Fox Creek Wines celebrated an Australian first, the launch of their new Braille wine labels, an initiative they undertook with the help of the Royal Society of the Blind."

Fox Creek Wines is an acclaimed wine producer based in the McLaren Vale, in South Australia. The estate was established in 1984, and their flagship Shiraz was first released in 1994. After several successive vintages, it became known as the Reserve Shiraz. The estate produces a range of red, white and sparkling wines made from grape varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho. Fox Creek uses grapes grown only in the McLaren Vale, most of which come from its own estate vineyards.

The McLaren Vale wine region is located approximately 35 kilometres South of Adelaide. It is by far the most important wine-producing area in the Fleurieu zone and is also regarded very highly throughout Australia and the world. A wide array of grape varieties can be successfully grown in the region. The best wines come from very old vines, some planted more than 100 years ago. These are prized for producing low yields of extremely concentrated fruit. Shiraz leads the region's list of award-winning wines. Cabernet Sauvignon is another prominent grape variety, along with Grenache and Mourvedre, which, together with Shiraz, make up some of the most acclaimed GSM blends in the region. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate McLaren Vale's white grape varieties, with a plethora of other regional and international specialties such as Merlot, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Viognier also make their mark.

Shiraz is the name given to the dark-skinned Syrah grape when grown in Australia and selected pockets of the New World. Though genetically identical, the stylistic differences between Shiraz and Syrah are usually pronounced.

Shiraz is so important to Australian viticulture that it is the most planted grape variety in the majority of Australian vineyards and has become virtually synonymous with the country's wine regions, and in particular the Barossa Valley.