The range
Australia's grape, from the regions that made the case for it. Barossa old vines in Henschke Hill of Grace, Torbreck RunRig and Kaesler Old Bastard; Clare in Jim Barry The Armagh; Hunter in Brokenwood Graveyard; McLaren Vale in d'Arenberg The Dead Arm; and Penfolds Grange, which is multi-region by design.
It is not only a fine wine category. Koonunga Hill, Pepperjack, Taylors Estate and Wyndham Bin 555 are weeknight bottles, and the price range on this page runs from under fifteen dollars to several hundred.
Shiraz and syrah are the same grape. The name is a style signal rather than a legal distinction: shiraz usually means riper and fuller, syrah cooler and more peppery. Clonakilla's Shiraz Viognier and Oakridge's syrah sit at that cooler end. Sparkling shiraz is a different proposition again and lives under Sparkling.
17bottles. Every one with a reason written against it.
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number three in ALM's national still red segment with 1.38% share, up from fourth last year. A litre of drinkable shiraz at this price has a permanent audience.
1000 mL13.0%10.3 std
$10.99
Barossa Valley, South Australia
We stock it because old-vine provenance is the Barossa's real advantage over every other region on earth, and Old Bastard is one of the clearest statements of it.
750 mL14.5%8.5 std
$366.99
Hunter Valley, New South Wales
We stock it because the fine Australian red range cannot be all Barossa and Coonawarra. Graveyard is the Hunter's entry in that conversation, and it is the wine Hunter drinkers come looking for by name.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$442.99
McLaren Vale, South Australia
We stock it because McLaren Vale deserves a place in the fine shiraz range alongside Barossa and Clare, and at this price Dead Arm is one of the best-value serious reds on the list.
750 mL15.0%8.9 std
$74.99
Canberra District, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the most influential cool-climate shiraz in the country, and the one wine at this level made within driving distance of Sydney.
750 mL14.0%8.3 std
$139.99
Barossa Valley, South Australia
We stock it because Yalumba is the oldest family winery in the country and Octavius is what it makes to be judged on. It belongs in the Barossa tier beside Torbreck and Kaesler.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$159.99
Grampians
We stock it for credibility at the top of the Australian shiraz range. Anyone looking at Grange, Hill of Grace and The Armagh expects to find Thomson Family beside them, and a list that stops short of it reads as incomplete.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$249.99
Clare Valley, South Australia
We stock it because the top Australian shiraz shelf needs Clare beside Barossa and Eden Valley. Grange, Hill of Grace and The Armagh are the three names that set it.
750 mL13.6%8.0 std
$419.29
Barossa Valley, South Australia
We stock it because Torbreck is the modern Barossa's loudest voice and RunRig is its statement wine. It sits naturally beside the Kaesler and Penfolds top tier.
750 mL15.0%8.9 std
$330.00
Eden Valley, South Australia
We stock it because Grange without Hill of Grace is half a fine wine list. These two names are what a serious Australian range is judged on before anything else gets looked at.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$949.99
South Australia
We stock it because Grange is the most searched Australian wine there is. Whatever else is on the list, customers check whether Grange is on it.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$1,209.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number eight in the state, and because the bin numbers are the reason a lot of Australians know how to ask for a red wine at all.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$13.99
Clare Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is the highest-ranked single-region red in the state that is not owned by one of the two big groups, and because Clare shiraz tastes of somewhere in a way that a South Eastern Australia blend cannot.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number six in the state and because it does the same job as the Koonunga Hill blend several dollars lower, which is a question customers ask directly.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$8.99
Barossa Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is the number one red in the country and number four in this state, and because it is the point on this shelf where a shopper crosses from a wine they know into a wine from one named place.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
South Australia
We stock it because it is the red more people in New South Wales buy than any other, and because it is the cheapest bottle on this shelf carrying a name that means something to a winemaker as well as to a shopper.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$14.99
South Australia
We stock it because shiraz cabernet is an Australian idea before it is anyone else's, and because this bottle is number five in the state while the two single varieties are one and three - the customers are not choosing between them, they are buying all of them.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
