2016 Thistledown Cunning Plan Shiraz Langhorne Creek Australia 750 ml

A New Legacy of Freshness and Purity in Australia

Since the first vintage hit the market in 2013, Thistledown has been racking up high critical scores as well as multiple gold and silver awards at the International Wine Challenge. Two Scottish Masters of Wine, Giles Cooke MW and Fergal Tynan MW, are behind the effort. After falling in love with South Australia’s terroir, they based their venture out of the Adelaide Hills and teamed up with veteran Revenir winemaker Peter Leske, an alumni of Domaine Dujac and Alain Graillot. This juicy, luscious Langhorne Creek Vale Shiraz announced itself on the international stage with a bang, winning a rave 94-point review from the top Australian wine critic, James Halliday. “It has the succulence of Langhorne Creek, but with a raft of flowery/spicy notes not so common in the region,” Halliday declared. “Hedonistic? You bet.” Offered for the first time in U.S. — exclusively on Wine Access — at $19.99 per bottle, this bold new vision for South Australian Shiraz is an exhilarating wine at an astounding value.

Cooke and Tynan’s philosophy of “picking on the way up rather than the way down” lies at the heart of this Shiraz’s success. And it’s an approach that puts them in the new pantheon of elite Australian wineries (Penfolds, Jamsheed, Torbreck) that embody a modern focus on balance and elegance.

Sourcing superb fruit from iconic, low-yield plots in Langhorne Creek, the winemakers pick early, yielding a freshness and purity rarely found among fruit-bomb Shirazes. The region’s granite-derivative sandy soils are ideal for producing wines with excellent cellaring potential, while berries thrive under the intense heat of summer sunshine, cleansed by cooling breezes that funnel in from the Gulf St. Vincent. The result from the 2016 vintage was a Shiraz of chiseled precision that over-delivers powerfully for its price tag.