Standish 'The Standish' Barossa Shiraz 2003 (RP:99) / 2013

The Standish Wine Company is a wine company located in Australia's Barossa Valley. The estate produces multiple examples of Shiraz from vines with ungrafted rootstocks, including The Standish, The Relic, Andelmonde, Borne Bollene and The Schubert Theorem, from specific vineyard sites in Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.
The company was founded in 1999, after Dan Standish, who was the winemaker at Torbreck Vintners, secured a small parcel of Shiraz vines from his parents' vineyard in Vine Vale, a subregion of Barossa Valley. Today this 8-hectare (19-acre) vineyard, which is planted on white sandy soils over deep clay, contributes grapes for the flagship wine, The Standish.
The portfolio has a range of other varietal and blended wines. Drawing on previous winemaking experience in the Rhône Valley, Standish produces The Relic Shiraz with a small percentage of Viognier, a traditional technique in Côte Rôtie. Andelmonde, Borne Bollene and The Schubert Theorem are produced from 100-percent Shiraz sourced from vineyards with ungrafted vines.

Region:
Laycock Family Vineyard, Greenock, Barossa Valley

Country of Origin:
Australia

Type:
Red/Rouge (Still)

Grape Varieties:
Shiraz

Vinification:
The Standish Wine Company wines are vinified with wild yeasts and open-top fermented. They are then basket-pressed and matured in French oak barriques.

Tasting Notes:
The 2003 Shiraz (100% Shiraz from a 90-year-old Vine Vale vineyard) was cropped at 0.5 tons of fruit per acre, and was aged 32 months in old French oak. It is a magnificent effort boasting tremendous ripeness as well as abundant blueberry and creme de cassis notes intermixed with flowers, graphite, and crushed rocks. With amazing concentration, purity, and richness, but no heaviness (the alcohol is only 14.5%), and a finish that lasts well past a minute, it is accessible now, but should age effortlessly for two decades or more.