Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz 2020  £90.71

Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz 

Langmeil Winery is home to The Freedom 1843 Shiraz, believed to be planted in 1843 by vigneron Christian Auricht. Escaping war and persecution in Prussia, Auricht traveled to his new homeland, finding freedom in the Barossa Valley. The original plantings still survive and are some of the oldest and rarest vines in the world.

2020 was the smallest vintage in fifty years due to one of the driest growing seasons on record, with spring frosts followed by hot and windy conditions at flowering. The heat continued in December and January with a cooler-than-average February when the reduced crop ripened quickly. The compressed vintage produced juice of great colour, concentration and flavour, making it a year for rich and full-bodied wines

Deep crimson.  An intense aroma of ripe Satsuma plum, mocha, vanilla and savoury notes combine with hints of cedar and sweet spices.  Rich, sweet fruit is balanced wonderfully palate with briary and sweet spices and lovely, silky tannins. A full-bodied, textural wine, showing great complexity with hints of cedar and allspice flowing through to the lengthy, brambly fruit finish.

Try with Kangaroo steak with plum sauce; lamb shanks; grilled or roast beef; hard matured cheese. 

96 Points - Wine Companion

Shiraz sourced from a gnarled old patch of 177-year-old vines at the Langmeil winery in Tanunda; 26 months in French oak (46% new). The textural aspects that these ancient ancestor vines afford a wine are something to behold, with a thick, rolling swell of blackberry breaking over the palate dotted with spice, licorice, dark chocolate, violets, roasting meats and earth. Velvety and showing an incredible concentration of fruit and superfine, ripe tannin. They've seen a lot have these old vines, floods, droughts and fires, but they still keep delivering wines of remarkable heft and power. And this is a great example.

Dave Brookes