St Hugo Barossa Shiraz 2020 (South Australia)
I'm forever telling people that having a nostalgic connection to a wine will make it taste better. You can’t help but be transported back to a special time when you drank that wine; it’s not so much a bottle of wine as a time capsule. It helps if the wine tastes fantastic, but I stand by my belief that it’s not essential. If you’re a wine professional, you can’t help but feel proud if a nostalgic wine or wine brand performs well in a tasting as you’re emotionally bonded to it. In October 2018 my now husband proposed to me as we were standing by the vines that grow in front of the St Hugo Restaurant in the Barossa. We were staying at the Jacob’s Creek cottage and my husband decided to make good use of the vivid sunset that emblazoned the skies that night. The day after we had a celebratory lunch at the St Hugo restaurant with a fantastic bottle of wine. Suffice to say I get a fuzzy feeling when I see any St Hugo wine, so to see one richly rewarded as the top shiraz for 2024 is very nice indeed. Deeply coloured with dark fruit, toasted spice and liquorice aromas on the nose which leads into a full-bodied and ripe palate resplendent with dark, sweet fruit, big and bold yet finely grained tannins and youthful vibrance. The purity of fruit here is obvious in a wine that has incredible complexity and power. (A)