2018 Anderson Hill Shiraz O Series Adelaide Hills 750 ml

It’s no easy feat for a Shiraz to score 97 points and win Best in Show at Decanter’s World Wine Awards. 

Wines there get tasted blind by a panel that includes Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers from all over the world. When those judges decide to grant a Best in Show, the award must be confirmed by two of the competition’s co-chairs—a tough crowd indeed. 

When the 2018 Anderson Hill Shiraz O Series Adelaide Hills took home its Best in Show award—beating out 334 other, mostly pricier entries—we swooped in to lock down an allocation for Wine Access members. From one of the coolest-climate and highest-elevation vineyards in South Australia, it’s a perfumed beauty that impressed us with its sheer elegance and grace.

When Scottish immigrant Brian Anderson and his son Ben bought 32 acres in Adelaide Hills in 1994, they decided to plant their Lenswood Vineyard at 1,968 feet, higher than almost all of their neighbors. Pinot Noir would have been a natural fit at this altitude. Shiraz, on the other hand, was a risk. But it paid off handsomely, and today the Andersons’ vines are closing in on their THIRD decade. 

The vineyard sits roughly as far below the equator as Santa Barbara County’s great sites sit above it. In fact, Bien Nacido—famous for so many legendary California Syrahs—is at the same latitude, but in the Northern Hemisphere. Like those top sites, Lenswood enjoys the moderating influence of the sea.

This is a Shiraz unlike anything made in Barossa Valley. Get that duck breast with spring onions crackling away on the barbie, then pour yourself a brilliant ruby-hued glass of this champion.