A little drop of heaven

Sourced from a block of vines, some going back 140 years, the winemaking had been kept simple: open vat fermentation, basket pressing, no tannin addition, 18 months in new and older French oak.

The 2004 vintage, a naturally blessed season across most of Australia, is the perfect homage to Brother May, even if the wine is priced at a slightly immodest (at least by Jesuit standards) $60 a bottle.

The '04 Brother May shiraz has an honest, almost rustic personality driven by plenty of blueberry/dark berries and earthiness upfront, finishing soft and velvety. The background eucalypt presence is very Clare, very Sevenhill.

It's bigger and richer than any of the usual commercial Sevenhill reds, so can it be duplicated every year? The simple answer is: no.



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