Dandelion Vineyards Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz 2012 $32 ★★★★½
Even if you were somehow blind to the bling on the label (gold medals for Africa here) you’d know as soon as you took the first sip that this wine is astonishingly tasty. It’s scented with red rose, dried herbs, cocoa and ripe black fruits, all of which soak through to the palate. Lionheart is named after grower Carl Lindner, a lifelong protector and devotee of old Barossa vines. Many of his vines, which produce the fruit for this wine, are well over a century old, surviving and thriving on their own roots – a rare thing in our time. www.winedirect.co.nz
