McWilliam's are one of the largest landholders in Coonawarra, with more than three hundred hectares of the choicest properties under vine, including the exhalted Laira Vineyard, established by Captain Stentiford in 1893 atop the Coonawarra's splendid Terra rossa heartland. Eric Brand, one of the earliest patrons of the Coonawarra, became the custodian of the vineyard more than half a century later. Expressing all the distinctive regional highlights of Coonawarra, Brand's Laira is a Merlot of exceptional quality, softness and approachability.

Laira Vineyard was established by Captain Stentiford in 1893 on a choice parcel of Coonawarra land, one of the salient Terra Rossa plantings. Eric Brand, first Patron of Coonawarra, became custodian of the vineyard more than half a century later. From a selection of the finest grapes, hand picked off the most precious blocks, Stentiford represents the jewel in the crown of Coonawarra Shiraz, a bottle aged wine of peerless quality, matured under the estate cellars until release.

From fruit grown to one of Coonawarra's most eninent small vineyards, the superior Brand's Laira Block 1, planted in 1971. The precious vines yield scant harvests of the most extraordinary quality grapes which translate into the most remarkable wine. McWilliams reserve the elite parcels from this treasured viticultural asset to construct a pure single vineyard wine, one of the nation's great editions of Cabernet Sauvignon.

McWilliams have long expressed an affinity for the unique red earth soils which consistently yield the big boned, statuesque style of Australian red wine. Plant a six inch nail, water it and in a year you will have a crowbar! said John James McWilliam when he surveyed the ferrous red soils of Hanwood in 1913. Today, McWilliams own and operate many of the most salubrious terra rosa sites in Coonawarra, retaining the pick of the crop, for a pure Cabernet wine from the prestigious Laira Vineyard.

A descendant of Coonawarra's oldest vines, Brand's Laira yields exceptional quality harvests of Cabernet Sauvignon which owe their provenence to historic plantings. The property played an important role in establishing Coonawarra's international reputation as Australia's most eminent red winegrowing region. Drawing fruit from superlative vineyards, including a single block which hosts the original 1893 vines, Brand's Laira is intensely varietal and displays the distinctive Cabernet Sauvignon style which has made Coonawarra famous.

McWilliam's acquired the eminent Laira property in the 1990s and are now one of the largest landholders in Coonawarra. The stately Laira Vineyard is widely regarded as one of Coonawarra's very finest plantings of Shiraz. The only locally grown grape variety until 1950, Shiraz has played an important role in establishing Coonawarra's international reputation as Australia's preeminent red winegrowing region. Laira offers the timeless and enduring style of Coonawarra Shiraz, a distinctly regional wine of great length and superb balance.

Captain Stentiford established his Shiraz vineyard in 1896, naming the property Laira after a merchant trader. Plantings of Cabernet came much later and have since been the source of memorable single vineyard wines. Laira's exceptional character shines when the grapes are fashioned into a pure Cabernet wine, encapsulating the combination of climate and soil, aspect and fruit, that stamps this historical vineyard with individuality. The flavours are distinctly Coonawarra, but the perfume and succulent fruit characters are conspicuously Brands Laira.

An assemblage of Pinot Noir from Brancott's Marlborough growers with a conspicuous component of fruit harvested off good vineyards in Wairau Valley. The alluvial soils of Marlborough produce fine aromatic wines with balanced, natural acidity. A dominance of classic varietal fruit characters, cherries, rhubarb and strawberry are all supported by hints of oaken spice and a fine velvet tannin structure, enhanced by the clonal complexity and expression of terroir.

A perennial benchmark in Coonawarra Shiraz, by a couple who have been crafting conspicuous regional editions for over thirty years. Opulent with enticing aromas, heady flavours, stylish oak and fine tannins.

One of Coonawarra's most compelling cases for Shiraz, Bowen Estate's meritorious achievements really do begin in the vineyard. Coonwarra is one of the world's most articulate terroirs, Bowen make a point of preserving the native charm of their Shiraz throughout the course of vinification and ageing in a high proportion of quality new oak. The fruit of intensive viticultural management and judicious selection, it is ultimately the grapes themselves, hand picked and sorted off the vine, which dictate the splendour in this cardinal construct of Coonawarra Shiraz.

Distinguished Langtons Classification. Doug and Emma Bowen hold a very strong belief in the hand pruning of vines. Such old fashioned care improves evenness of budburst, bunch exposure and ripeness, for restricted yields of the most intensely flavoured Cabernet grapes. A holistic management of the soils is crucial, all plantings are closely husbanded and individually managed, local fauna is encouraged to be a part of the ecosystem. It is this painstaking nurture of the vine which translates into an enduring quality of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.

Excellent Langtons Classification. Exclusively estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, one of Coonawarra's finest. The low yielding vineyard, planted to the magical Terra rossa soils, is dry grown and hand arch cane pruned, it traditionally yields limited crops of intensely flavoured fruit. Skilled use of traditional oaking techniques achieves a wine that's integrated and seamless, as delicate fine grain French oak supports the essential Coonawarra characters of violets and bramble berry, scorched earth and blueberry cassis perfumes.

Preservative free Dry Red, Shiraz and Pinot Noir sourced from Botobolar's Organic Vineyard at Mudgee. A truly delicious wine full of flavour, a great choice for the health conscious wine consumer! Botobolar's commitment to minimum input during the winemaking process preserves the natural flavours of the fruit. The twenty-two hectare site established in 1971 is Australia's oldest organic vineyard, the vines have always been grown organically without the use of pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers.

A highly prolific wine industry trophy winner, including best single vineyard and best Shiraz at the hotly contested McLaren Vale Wine Show. A magnificent collation of old vines fruit from several pickings on the illustrious Rayner property, including a judicious measure of grapes as whole bunches, are treated to a wild indigenous yeast ferment and course of age in barrels of well seasoned French oak. A wonderfully perfumed wine defined by its suppleness and silkyness, there's more of Provence than Blewitt Springs, its endless finish resonating on a length of raspberry, apricots, cherries and spice.

Bondar make wine from a privileged ballot of elite little sites. It's a tiny portfolio with the effort on excellence. At the heart of all their splendour is an illustrious block of less than a hectare, fifty year old vines on a patch of salubrious sandy soils within the princely parcels of Rayner Vineyard. This is Grenache as it should be made, the seasoned old plantings are hand picked for an arcane, old world style of ferment, a measure of whole bunches and whole berries intact, meticulously timed for age and assemblage into an excruciatingly limited release wine.

Try and find a rendering of McLaren Vale GSM which includes a sultry soupçon of the X-rated Counoise and Carignan. It's that extra bit of passion for the racy red blends from Vallée Rhône which sets Bondar apart as a deeply transcendental journey into the sublime majesty of abstruse bucolic blends. It's all old vines fruit, picked row on row by hand, gently treated to a press, natural ferments and fill to seasoned French oak. There’s a life to the palate, a tension and nerve, which elevates the medley to a weightier mouthfeel and more intricate place.

Juan Gil Familiares are a company of small independent estates, specializing in vintages of artisanally crafted, limited release wines. Membership is by invitation only, a bespoke club of vignerons, committed to the restoration of precious old sites which may otherwise be unviable. From limited harvests of old and very old vines Tempranillo, some over a century of age, grown to the Zamora precincts of El Pego and Villanueva de Campeán, a powerful wine of intense savoury complexity, layers of bramble fruit flavours, judicious tannins and charming old world oak.

Dedication to the revival and husbandry of wayward old vineyards are essential to the wines of Bodegas Tridente. There are some forty evocative and inspiring parcels of Tempranillo throughout Castilla y León which contribute fruit, all are superior, Rejón is the oldest and most distinguished, 130 years of age near the hamlet of El Pego. The precious grapes are all hand sorted and hand picked, the best bunches are fermented in small traditional vats and filled to the finest French oak barriques for an extended term of twenty months maturation.

From hand picked parcels of Tempranillo grapes, grown to traditionally managed Vaso vineyards on the ancient viticultural precincts of El Pego and Villanueva de Campean within the province of Zamora. An elegant nose of fresh fruit bouquets, berries and varietal leaf, minarets of turkish coffee and exotic roasted spice. Rich and muscular palate of blueberry and dark fruits confiture, offering racy graphite and espresso notes, supported by piquant licorice tannins and a thinly veiled hint of oak, before a ripe finish of chocolate and freshly milled spice.

From parcels of Garnacha Tintorera and Monastrell, harvested off vines planted to the lean, sandy soils of Almansa. It is here that the parched vines must forage for their nourishment, a struggle for survival which concentrates flavour in the grapes, producing intense fruit esters and achieving the most wonderful complexity. The remarkably generous wines of Almansa are renowned for their mouth coating textural richness and opaque fruit characters, introduce Atalaya to a meal of pork loin padella, succulent saffron chicken or prawn and pimientos paella.

Denominación de Origen Alamansa is at the east of the Iberian peninsula, between La Mancha highlands and the Mediterranean coast. It was bitterly fought over by the Christians and Moors but it is nowadays best known for good red wine. Grenacha is the grape of choice, often vinified alongside an inclusion of Monastrell, it produces a thick succulent wine renowned for its glass coating richness, evocative perfume and silken textures. Intenational industry doyen Robert Parker describes La Atalaya as an amazing value in unrestrained hedonism.

The very limited range of Atalaya are all consistent in their structure and intensity, vintages of the most remarkable concentration, boundless in their generosity yet seamless, they speak volumes about the frugal soils whence they originate. Alaya Tierra is the estate flagship, a powerful, opaque wine, pure Grenache at its old vine, old world finest, crafted from the reduced little berries of fifty year old plantings, tiny yields of precious fruit, picked off the most superior blocks on the thirsty, sun drenched climes of Almansa in Castile La Mancha.

An exclusively Tempranillo wine, Bodega Alion caused a great stir amongst the industry press after their inaugural release. Fruit is collated from the most splendid vineyards along Ribera Del Duero, treated to a traditional, old world vinification, followed by a term of extravagant new oak maturation and a year or more in the stillness of the bottle before release. A refined Spaniard of the most opulent and intense character, a complex and well fleshed wine, distinguished by its elegance, seamlessness and remarkable structure.

A pure Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) wine from vineyards adjacent the Bodega Alion wineworks and from mother company Vega Sicilia's own estate properties at Valbuena. Alion is crafted in the modern Bordeaux cru classe style, using up to date equipment and lots of new French oak.

A mix of Temparanillo, Grenache and Mazuelo, from Rioja D.O.C. along Ebro River. Bodegas Age was established in 1881 from the legacy of three ancient family cellars with a long tradition of winemaking. Their distinguished origins are there to be seen in the ancient wineworks of Don Felix de Azpilicueta and in the bodega's paradise, where bottles of the earliest wines are still cellared. The estate remains family owned and operated, the traditional winemaking has ensured Siglo endures as an international ambassador of Bodegas Age.