Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2023

Shiraz 95%, Viognier 5%. Fruit is sourced from 25-year-old vines grown on granite at 650 metres elevation. The fruit was processed as whole berries in cuve, spending four weeks on skins before being pressed to barrique for 12 months. It was then racked to foudre where it rested for a short while before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. - Producer's Notes

The estate vineyard has a few different clones of shiraz, interestingly it has Best’s old block Concongella and the Tahbilk Old Vines clone, which sounds like a Star Wars droid. They can name dogs interesting things for varied breeds, but grape clones have to sound like serial numbers and types of car parts. Goes barrique to foudre over its two year maturation pre bottling. A subtle, spicy, slick red of washy raspberry fruit character, wet leaf and undergrowth characters, some brambly blackberry notes, white mushroom, black pepper and peppery sage leaf characters. It feels like viognier is a very back note here, the vintage out and proud in diffuse nature and spread of flavours, plus the greenery found here, but in all that, a kind of pinosity, pleasing swish of texture and cool finish. One can comment on the watery nature of the wine, for sure, so a caveat, but pleasure rises here too. 92 points. - Mike Bennie, Wine Front.