2015 Dandelion Vineyards Shiraz Red Queen of the Eden Valley 750 ml

Exclusive! In Australia’s brilliant 2015 vintage, Dandelion Vineyards’ Red Queen Shiraz was the uncontested belle of the ball, pulling down a staggering 97-point score from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, placing it among the highest tier of Aussie counterpoints, like the Powell & Son Steinert (97+, $720) and beating out Penfolds’ Magill Estate (95, $125). Calling it “stunning,” Parker’s publication said the Shiraz “combines awesome complexity with ample weight, power and concentration.” Culled from a historic, century-old Eden Valley vineyard, which yields just 1.2 tons of fruit per acre. A mere 472 cases were produced and we have 85 of the only cases currently in the U.S., on offer for $75 per bottle—25% off the winery release price. For this black-fruited, licorice-infused beauty laced with ripe tannins, shipping is included on just 2.

“Red Queen” is the appropriately regal nickname that winemaker Elena Brooks gave to the 106-year-old vineyard planted in 1912 by Colin Kroehn. Now a nonagenarian himself, Kroehn carefully tended to these gnarled, own-rooted vines for 66 years of his life, resulting in Shirazes of exquisite balance and massive concentration. The soils beneath those vines are some of the oldest in the world, dating back hundreds of millions of years, packed with quartzite and ironstone in fine layers of sandy loam and clay. In 2015, one of Australia’s best vintages of the last decade, this vineyard produced Brooks’ highest-scoring wine yet.

From the start at Dandelion, her focus has been on acidity and aromatics, a quest aided significantly by this region’s prime terroir. Eden Valley sits at a higher altitude than the Barossa Valley; Kroehn’s vineyard reaches 1,550 feet above sea level, an elevation that combines with the nearby marine influence to form a cool climate, preserving the acidity that Brooks so highly values. Those lower temperatures also lengthen the growing season, resulting in the complex, knockout bouquet of blackberry, black pepper, and dried herbs that you find in this wine.

After harvesting on April 23, grapes—including 40% whole cluster—were gently crushed, open-fermented and hand-plunged before aging for two and a half years in 50% new French oak. Thanks to the vintage’s excellent conditions, it’s a bottle that could easily age another 10 years, making it a must-buy addition to the cellar for any Shiraz collector.

Brooks, born in Bulgaria, was something of a winemaking prodigy, exposed to the industry at an early age as her native country’s wine economy boomed. She had her first barrel tasting at age 12! She fashioned her first batch of Chardonnay at age 16!! She had no other professional aspiration but to make wine. After getting her enology degree from the University of Adelaide, she cut her teeth at McLaren Vale’s Geoff Merrill and at Maxwell Wines. By the time she co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in 2007 with her husband Zar (a d’Arenberg alum) and a few other partners, she had “established her stellar reputation for producing elegant, fruit-driven wines,” says Vinous.