Laughing Jack Carl Albert Shiraz 2018

Laughing Jack Carl Albert Shiraz is a single-block Barossa Shiraz from high on Moppa Hill.

Block 4 was an apricot orchard planted in the early 1900s before Shawn Kalleske and his team put vines back in the ground in 2003. At 400 metres, few sites in the western Barossa sit higher or colder, cool enough that ripening can stall, as it did in 2012, and it is normally the last vineyard picked. The soil is stony red-brown earth with bands of buckshot ironstone over orange clay. Fruit was hand-picked and 92 per cent destemmed, plunged by hand three times a day, basket-pressed after twenty days on skins, then held twenty months in French hogsheads and barriques. Just 127 dozen were bottled, unfined and unfiltered.

Measured and refined for the Barossa, with low-yield concentration carried on fine acid and sleek, well-integrated tannin. Dark fruit, a little cedar, plenty of length. Serve at 17 degrees, decanted. Good with dry-aged beef, slow-roast lamb or braised oxtail.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.