Wendouree Shiraz Malbec 2017

Tony and Lita Brady describe their wines as an iron fist in a velvet glove. With the Shiraz Malbec, that velvet glove is doing slightly more of the work — without ever losing the iron underneath.

This blend draws its character from old, dry-grown Clare Valley vines, with Malbec contributing a distinctive textural dimension that sets it apart from Wendouree's straight Shiraz. The result is a wine with real depth and power to the fruit, where savoury complexity and pure, mulberry-driven fruit take centre stage. Tannins and oak fold themselves invisibly into the structure, adding a veneer of balance rather than announcing themselves — the mark of a genuinely accomplished blend.

In the glass, expect a vibrant expression of red, blue and black berries, dark plums and cedary oak, layered with cola, dusty earth and that distinctive Wendouree spice that no other Australian producer quite replicates. With time and air, more vegetal, savoury malbec character emerges, finishing with real freshness, style and elegance rather than brute force. Older vintages reveal an extraordinary evolution — deeply scented, complex, packed with dark chocolate, crushed walnut, bark and aniseed, the kind of layered, ageing complexity that simply cannot be rushed or replicated young.

This is a wine that rewards real patience. Vintages often need a decade or more to fully emerge, and the very best examples — drawn from cool, long growing seasons — are capable of evolving magnificently for twenty, even thirty years. It is, by repeated critical consensus, one of the most consistently excellent wines in the entire Wendouree range, regularly sitting alongside the Shiraz and Cabernet as the pinnacle of what this extraordinary vineyard can produce.