2023 Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia
100% Single Vineyard Shiraz. 12 months in French oak. Colour: Hot flush. Aroma: Musk, boysenberry, and purple fruit straps, accented by fragrant notes of juniper, rosemary blooms, and a hint of sandalwood incense. Palate: Boysenberry, plum, and black cherry mingling with hints of savory spice and a subtle earthiness. Cellar: 20 years.
Quandong Farm Shiraz is a single vineyard wine that aims to highlight the intensity and brightness of fruit grown using biodynamic techniques. Our farming practices are designed to produce wines of intensity, but also with layers of texture, flavour and interest for the consumer. We think this wine exhibits these characteristics and provides both concentration and flavour and a certain delicacy, rather than simple raw power.
Organic | Biodynamic
3.73
5.21
2.9
Low and slow. The 2023 growing season was a time for viticulturalists to show off their impressive skills. From a cold and wet, seemingly never-ending winter to a Spring which seemed like it was still winter, a long, cool Summer which seemed like Spring, challenges were abound. Numerous climatic challenges including cool and windy weather during flowering, one of the wettest Springs for 30 years and even more windy weather in Summer meant that crops were small but our organic and biodynamic farming methods paid off — our vines showed incredible resilience to whatever came their way. A season that was around three weeks late on average and had a much slower ripening period means that 2023 wines show great acid, complex layers of delicate flavours, lightness, brightness, and longevity.
Crushed Velvet
Lively and layered. Up front: licorice allsorts, purple sherbet, and blackcurrant, followed by deeper notes of dried plum skin, cardamom, and a savoury edge of tarragon, ripe stems, and smokehouse. It’s aromatic but grounded—sweet, spicy, and just a little wild.
Bright and focused with plenty of drive. There’s an immediate juicy lift, but the wine quickly reveals its depth—dark fruit, spice, and a gentle, earthy pull. Tannins are grainy yet smooth, with a kind of linen-like grip that gives shape without heaviness. It finishes brooding but clean, with tension, energy, and a lot of quiet confidence.
GOOD: Now - BETTER: 2027 - MAX: 2038
Grapes were hand picked and selector harvested at optimum flavour and sugar equilibrium. 40% was used as whole bunches while the remainder was delicately destemmed and fermented using 100% indigenous (wild) yeast. The small batch open ferments were carefully plunged and pumped over for 10-15 days to extract colour, flavour and tannin structure, then pressed to new and mature French oak puncheons, where they were nurtured for 12 months prior to blending and bottling.
Ashleigh Seymour
New Person, Same Old Mistakes—Tame Impala
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OPENING HOURS:
7 days a week, 10am – 5pm
Tastings available daily –
bookings preferred
Phone: (08) 8323 9131
Email: wine@paxtonwines.com
68 Wheaton Road, McLaren Vale
South Australia 5171
PAXTON SOCIAL WINE CLUB
Phone: 0400 863 400
Email: janet@paxtonwines.com
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