The best

• red wine
• white wine
• champagne
• rosé
• whisky
• spirits
• beer

deals in Australia

When you open a Blackstrap, you know you’re heading into seriously dark, rich, red territory. It’s from McLaren Vale, so it shows all that inky, chocolatey, deep black fruit richness the region is known for. A good dose of oak tempers the richness, and fine tannins smooth it out even further, so it’s drinking well now. But it’s definitely an ultra-velvety, mouthcoating, lipstaining, rich and powerful red that you need to approach carefully!

Attractive deep black-red in the glass. Soft and rich berry fruits on the palate. Fine tannins on the finish allow the berry flavours to linger elegantly. The vines are grown on the sandy soil of Blewitt Springs, machine-harvested, crushed, 7 days on skins, matured for 18 months in various hogsheads.

This is the third release of this wine drawing fruit from our Blewitt Springs vineyard sitting on sandy soil offering excellent drainage and resistance to disease and this year using Grenache from our friends at Dog Ridge. The wise old ladies from Blewitt Springs (shiraz) have teamed up with spicy Grenache from McLaren Flat producing fruit of uncommon intensity and flavour. This wine is flavoursome showing chocolate, spice and a sweet earthy palate finishing with powdery tannins and length. Enjoy now or cellar up to 10 years.94/100 Kim Brebach94/100 Wine Showcase

THISTLEDOWN WINES Cunning Plan Shiraz, McLaren Vale

Once your wine arrives, slow right down. Be patient with this wine and it will reward your handsomely – decant for half an hour and the transformation is magical. Once the juice loosens up and releases its hidden depths, it develops an aroma that is just divine. Discover liquorice, blackcurrant, cherry, blackberry and bitter cocoa mirrored on the palate with turbo-charged punch and power. And the finish? It goes on forever…