2016 Richard Hamilton Centurion 124 Year Old Vine Shiraz McLaren Vale 750 ml

It is bittersweet today to offer my last ever wine at Wine Access, on my last day as Chief Wine Officer. It’s also the first time I have personally recommended a wine from my former neighbor country Australia. But then, this 2016 Richard Hamilton Centurion 124 Year Old Vine Shiraz is a very special wine, from a small plot of ancient dry-grown Shiraz vines planted in 1892, one of the oldest Shiraz vineyards in McLaren Vale, and indeed one of the oldest vineyards in the world, period. This is a rare and exceptional wine that until now has not been available in the US. However, I leveraged long-established contacts to secure a pallet exclusively for Wine Access clients. Thanks to direct-importation, while this represents great value at $80 back in Australia compared to other iconic Shiraz bottles, I’m able to offer it today for an astonishing $60 per bottle. Secure your share now.

This wine is a selection of just the best 12 rows from that plot planted in 1892—these ancient vines lend incredible layers of wild black and blue fruits, licorice, dark chocolate, and exotic spices as well as a lavish richness, opulence, and creaminess to the palate balanced by rich and velvety tannins.

When I drink a wine from really old vines, I love to think about what the world was like when those vines were planted, and all that has happened since. In 1892 when pioneering growers in McLaren Vale planted what are now the 124-year-old vines from which this wine hails, immigrants began to flood the halls at Ellis Island, the first basketball game was played in a public stadium, the General Electric Company was established, Thomas Edison patented a two-way telegraph, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited for the first time, the first students attended lectures at the University of Chicago, the first issue of Vogue hit newsstands, and the world-famous The Nutcracker ballet first premiered. This is a wine from truly historical vines.

The doyen of Australian wine critics James Halliday scored this wine 97 points; fair enough, it is indeed close to perfect McLaren Vale Shiraz.

Halliday sums up the loving craftsmanship of this wine perfectly: “124yo vines, a portion fermented in a new large French oak vat, the balance in small static fermenters with 3-6 pumpovers daily and 600kg open fermenters with whole bunches/whole berries and hand-plunged, the free-run and pressings were matured separately in new and used French hogsheads. The extremely complex fermentation vessels and processes plus new (22%) and used oak have given rise to a very attractive high quality, full-bodied wine. It would have been easy to simplify the vinification and have finished with a very good wine. This, however is a great wine, with its black fruits, round but plentiful tannins and high quality oak all perfectly balanced against each other.”  

The confluence of some of the world’s oldest vines with such earnest winemaking results in a phenomenal wine with remarkable depth and layers. It is wonderful even now, but will continue to improve, developing meaty complexity and textural refinement through to 2030. A fitting wine for my Wine Access swan-song.

Secure your share.

Matt Deller MW

Master of Wine