Wine of the week: A mineral-imbued Australian Shiraz

The 2005 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz captures everything that is raw and real about the soil, says Matthew Jukes - a truly wondrous conundrum.

Matthew Jukes
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2005 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz, Grampians, Victoria, Australia (£37.00, Great Western Wine).

One of the leading lights in Australia, Mount Langi, is now a superstar estate with visionary winemaking in the form of Dan Buckle. I can't remember how many gold medals and trophies this chap has won on the Australian wine competition circuit, but he is definitely one of the most inspirational and informed men in the whole of the country's wine scene.

Not conforming to the Australian Shiraz norm, this cool-climate Victorian wine, made in the middle of nowhere from vines planted as far back as 1963, is sensuous, mineral-imbued and effortlessly graceful in very much a European way. This is one wine to serve blind when pouring heroic Shirazes for your Mensan pals. I can guarantee amazement when the label is revealed because Langi captures everything that's raw and real about the soil in which it is grown. That alone is too thrilling to describe in mere words. The wine will have to do it for me, such is its elemental force. Langi Shiraz is a truly wondrous conundrum. The 2006 vintage, which follows later this year, is one of my 100 Best Australian Wines of 2011.

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Matthew Jukes is a winner of International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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