Skillogalee is Celtic for a sort of gruel commonly fed to prisoners. When John Horrocks finally made it back to Penwortham after his trek through the Flinders ranges on Afghan camels, he gave the creek nearby the name Skillogalee in memory of the scant provisions which sustained the expedition. Skillogalee makes wine in a small but modern facility, which crushes only around 250 tonnes each vintage, affording the team a unique opportunity to hand make discrete quantities of individually carefully crafted, small batch vintages.

Skillogalee is blessed every year with harvests of the Clare Valley's finest Traminer, a bounty of the most outstanding quality fruit, which the dedicated team handcrafts into vintages of exquisite small batch wines. Skillogalee means classically structured Gewurztraminer, solidly built, aromatic and spicey with notes of hazel and honeysuckle, balanced between drying minerality and floral fruits. Traminer is a bliss alongside robust food, the ideal accompaniment to spiced Asian cuisine or richly flavoured white meat recipes.

Shiraz was Shingleback's first choice, the inaugural vintage of 1998 was released to highly encouraging critical acclaim. Shingleback can now lay claim to a succession of superlative vintages which have collected an industry wishlist of coveted trophies and gold. Generously flavoured, intense with complexity, enhanced by an extravagant oak treatment, vinified from the finest Shiraz grown to the Davey Family Vineyard, home of the 2006 Jimmy Watson. Crafted from vine to bottle without excessive manipulation, gently handled right through to extended ageing.

Gold Mundus Vini International Wine Awards + the 2006 Jimmy Watson Winner. A spectacular red wine fashioned from a small batch of superlative Cabernet berries with intense fruit flavours, out of an outstanding McLaren Vale vintage. Brothers Kym and John Davey planted their family vineyard in the Willunga Basin, on land acquired by their grandfather in 1959. Within a small niche, the soil, climate and vines combine to create something special - the fruit that is ultimately hand-crafted to become D Block Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Shingleback know about Cabernet Sauvignon, having claimed a Jimmy Watson Trophy in 2006. Winemaker John Davey selects the best blocks of vine, then picks them right at the precise moment that both sugars and flavour are mature. With the right fruit, minimal handling is required and the character of the luscious McLaren Vale Cabernet grapes shines through. A fully aromatic, blackberried wine with rich earthy flavours, made in the ripe fruit forward style that has distinguished Shingleback as one of the McLaren Vale's finest ever Cabernet Sauvignon.

Shiraz grapes in the Adelaide Hills ripen slowly and evenly resulting in spicey, intense expressions in the fruit. Shaw + Smith is a star performer, sourced from the carefully managed warmer sub-area of Macclesfield which provides structure and richness. The cooler climes of Balhannah yield a truly exciting new wave Shiraz with loads of clean pepper, spiceyness, concentration and palate weight to match. A brilliantly structured wine with great concentration of fruit flavours, a modern Australian expression with less reliance on oak, vibrant and bright.

The wine which launched Sauvignon Blanc, Shaw + Smith and Adelaide Hills as a unique and distinctive genre of wine, defined by its moreish pink grapefruit lustre, lavender perfumery, concentration of clean fruits and vegetable crispness, its gorgeous mineral texture. The enduring excellence of Shaw + Smith begins in the vineyard, the pick of crop from estate parcels at Lenswood and Balhannah, fruit must be immaculate, hand sorted to retain nothing but the cleanest grapes. With each new vintage, Shaw and Smith set a higher benchmark in new world Sauvignon Blanc.

Pinot Noir is the most temperamental of wine grape varieties and remains the ultimate challenge for many makers. Shaw + Smith have accepted the challenge, albeit in a highly exacting, small batch way. Site selection, the right clonal mix, miniscule yields and fastidious vineyard management are essential to success. A single vineyard wine from vines planted at a density of 2780 per hectare, to a select mixture of Burgundy's highly regarded 777 clone, as well as MV6, the backbone to many of Australia's finest editions of Pinot Noir.

M3 Chardonnay is sourced exclusively from a single site, the Shaw+Smith M3 property at Woodside, named after the three partners in the vineyard, brothers Michael and Matthew Hill Smith, along with cousin Martin Shaw. M3 is a major refinement in styling, a serious attempt to produce an exceptional Chardonnay with the capacity to age gracefully. A sophisticated, barrel fermented wine with pure fruit character and restrained oak, exhibiting great elegance and exquisite length. A must for all enthusiasts of stately white wine.

Sourced exclusively from Shaw + Smith's picturesque Lenswood property on Adelaide Hills, established 1999, a great amount of work on the ground has significantly enhanced the virtues of a truly amazing Chardonnay vineyard. Hand picked grapes are whole bunch pressed into a high proportion of new 500 Litres French oak puncheons for a rich course of barrel ferments and term of maturation on gross sedimentery lees. An exquisite, fine boned Chardonnay in new world Burgundian styling, so highly articulate of an exceptional vineyard site.

Shaw & Smith make nothing but the best, exemplars exhibiting the finest balance and most exquisite elegance, always offering greater palate weight, character and charm. A low yielding vineyard at Balhannah is at the heart of Shaw & Smith, yielding the most exceptional harvest, year in and year out. Inimitably Adelaide Hills, enhanced by the rich flavours and luxuriant tannins of pampered vines. An intensely currant flavoured rendition of Shiraz, supported by pliant, licorice tannins and seasoned by curls of fragrant tradewind spice.

A profound construct of noble red varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc drive the palate, tempered by the forward drinking Malbec and plum juicyness of Merlot. The story dates back to a deluge upon the Sevenhill vineyards in 1974. Winemaker emeritus Brother John May was not convinced that the crop was up to standard, so he blended all the grapes together. Impresario Doug Crittenden declared that it was the closest thing to Pomerol he had ever tasted! Named for the founder of the Jesuit Order, St Ignatius remains to this day a wine of immense stature.

St Francis Xavier is really made in the vineyard. Fruit is sourced from a prized parcel at Sevenhill that captures the very essence of Clare Valley Riesling. St Francis Xavier is grown and made with great devotion to the preservation of flavours nurtured in the vineyard. The highly regarded clone from Geisheim is planted to a protected site, a block referred to as Herr Weikert. Great care is taken to settle and bottle the wine quickly, ensuring the vineyard's signature flavours are captured. It's the aim each year to release St Francis Xavier after twelve months in bottle, just as the glorious fruit characters begin to emerge.

Sevenhill conjures up visions of Clare Valley idyll, serene pastoral vistas and ancient cellars full of patiently maturing Shiraz wines. One of our nation's great viticultural endowments, Sevenhill were the first ever cellars to be established in Valley Clare. Winemaking is still carried out under the direction of the Jesuitical Manresa Society, sacramental altar wine still accounts for a third of the estate's production. Inigo is an intense yet balanced Shiraz with the requisite character and charm to articulate the grace of vines up to 140 years of age.

Sevenhill are a quiet achiever, softly spoken artificers of Clare Valley's finest. Riesling develops so much charm as it grows in the vineyard, that if it's picked at the right time, the wine is virtually made. Riesling's desire to wear her heart on her sleeve still means that she can be sensitive, so the vinification must be compassionate. Amongst the propitious terroirs of Sevenhill, vines yield fruit of refined minerality and savoury edge, the richer, red soils are higher in nutrients, all the team have to do is protect and maintain the character of fruit.

The old vine D3v14 clone planted on two blocks at Sevenhill is not known for great concentration, yet Sevenhill produces Merlot wines of greater colour, palate structure and character than most. We see Merlot's finest qualities of violet perfume and silky texture coming from the uniform but not rich, clay loams of Sevenhill's vineyard. Secondly, it's all in the timing. The aim is to encourage all berries to ripen simultaneously and evenly. A fine accompaniement to osso buco or veal, Inigo makes the most of a slow cooked leg of rosemary garlic lamb.

Clare Valley Cabernet is renowned throughout the world of wine for its elegance, delicacy and finesse. Sevenhill can count on harvests from the oldest vines in Valley Clare, established by the Jesuits Society in 1851, they are still managed by a dedicated viticultural team who treat their land with a reverence worthy of the seven hills of Rome. Real clergy, crafting true wine, aged under one of the nation's most ancient cellars, Inigo is a richly coloured wine, redolent with lifted eucalypt berry perfumes, supported by pious, graceful tannins and a robe of the most reverent oak.

Clare Valley's original winery, established by the Jesuits in 1851, Sevenhill still make all their wines from fruit grown to seventy two priceless hectares of estate vineyard, the ancient wineworks are nestled amongst the vines, very near the historic St Aloysius Church. Today's approach to winemaking is all about the encouraging harvests of the most intensely flavoured fruit off an endowment of low yielding vines, followed by traditionally small batch, old world winemaking techniques to extract rich opaque flavours and a measure of fine silky tannins.

Brother John May planted a block of low yielding Shiraz vines during his stewardship of Sevenhill Cellars in the 1970s, naming his beloved parcel Ignatious, after the builder of a historic shrine which overlooks the precious patch. Grapes are crushed into an ancient five tonnes, open slate fermenter, gently plunged for up to a fortnight and basket pressed into the luxury of completely new French oak for two years maturation. Its opaque density, opulent structure and polished, seamless tannins define John May as Clare Valley's tour de force.

Serafino Maglieri came to McLaren Vale in 1968 and devoted his life to wine. From picking to pruning to cellarhand, he worked his way up to plant his own vines and build his first winery. He was twice crowned McLaren Vale Bushing King and claimed Trophy for Best Shiraz at the 1997 Great Australian Wine Challenge. He gained international renown after winning Trophy for Best Shiraz and Red Wine of the Year at the prestigious London International.

The Brunello clone of Sangiovese, harvested off Serafino's Little Road block in McLaren Vale. Parcels are treated to a good old fashioned open ferment, hand pressed for malolactic and racked into a selection of well seasoned American oak barrels for an extravagant three years age. Magenta hued, dark cherries, black olive and plum bouquets, bay leaves and herb over savoury, meaty tannins, its refined, silky textures brought to account by an exquisite integration with fine cedar oak, nutmegs, clove and an exquisite smack of McLaren Vale hazelnut chocolates on the finish.

A collation of superior parcels from the Serafino estate vineyards in McLaren Vale, vinified in small, open top fermenters, pumped over twice daily for optimal extraction, pressed into French and American oak hogsheads for a luxurious twenty months maturation. Magnitude's mocha and mulberry spice nose precedes a full bodied palate of intense red berry fruits, sublimely integrated oak and mocha chocolate richness, all supported by an exquisite length over a carriage of supple, velvetine tannins.

Giovanni Maglieri worked at Pirramimma in the late 1950s. He was joined by 17 year old Serafino in 1963, the father and son team bought forty hectares of scrub and set about the task of clearing it for vines. After founding one of McLaren Vale's most eminent wineries, Serafino embarked upon his own label, cultivating a lineage of the most memorable vintages in McLaren Vale viticulture. The idyllic growing seasons and pristine soils along historic Kangarilla Road contribute to the creation of outstanding wines which express the uniqueness of terroir, sunshine and clime.

The dedicated vignerons at Seppeltsfield are very fond of a few choice parcels which grow an intensely flavoured Moscato. This is the vineyard block they call upon to fashion a very favourite drink, the elixir that revitalizes and refreshes at the end of a hard day's work. Fully ripe grapes, bursting with a concentration of juicy flavours are vinified to retain a toothsome natural sweetness. The sybarites of Seppeltsfield are people of passion, they are partisans of the rich moreish styles and indulge in the making of a Moscato that they themselves enjoy.

A choice harvest of old vines Grenache, exhibiting outstanding intensity of flavour, is assembled with parcels of Palomino grapes, to create Vera Viola Oloroso, the richest and sweetest of new world style Sherry. Extended maturation through a traditional old world Solera system achieves a rich and generously proportioned, full bodied fortified wine with a delicate balance of sweet honeyed flavours, aged rancio complexity and lifted, judiciously drying finish. Vera Viola Oloroso is the winner of countless conspicuous wine show competition accolades.