Deep and bright purple with ozone blue and pink rim-edge highlights. Aromatics and bouquet are here beautifully and inseparably combined: white chocolate and fresh lavender buds; cooking spices such as black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon; then comes fresh rosemary and fresh laurel leaves and browned meat juices; finally zephyrs of rose petal, nougat and violets. Pure shiraz underpinned by a nuance of fine oak. Bright red berries at dawn spark a burst of fruit before being quickly brought to heel by a long, clear line of natural acidity. Fine tannins boulevardier all the way from the first sip to palate’s end, and in a way that is noticeable rather than ostentatious. Aniseed and blueberry play off mulberry and plums. As is the wine’s nose, the palate is balanced to within a Troy ounce of impossible perfection.

The Lioness of McLaren Vale is sourced from the foothills of McLaren Vale. Here mature Shiraz vines ‘populate or perish’ in the ironstone pebble laden clay loam, over ancient Kurrajong Formation geology, a silica cemented conglomerate most suited to grow Shiraz.

After hand picking whole bunches of our Lioness of McLaren Vale in the first week of March the winemaker Elena Brooks let the whole bunches ferment together in open top fermenters with ambient yeasts and hand plunging for 12 days, before basket pressing into some new but predominately older French Oak barriques, to the mature for a further 18 months in the same oak, before bottling without fining or filtration to capture the essence of the vineyard. Although ready to drink the Lioness of McLaren Vale will also reward cellaring and decanting.

Dandelion Vineyards is a unique fusion of vineyards and vignerons. These wines represent decades of experience, blending the fruit of the old vine gardens with the finest traditions of artisan winemaking. Dandelion Vineyards are proven plantings that have stood the test of time. The winemakers wish is to nurture the unique character of these vineyards and express their terroir in these wines.