Magpie Estate, The Election Shiraz, Barossa Valley, 2002

Robert Parker describes The Election 2002 Shiraz as a “full-throttle offering fashioned from old vines and aged in a combination of American and French wood. This dense ruby/purple-colored Shiraz begins slowly, displaying restrained, subtle aromatics, and builds like a runaway train in the mouth. It exhibits abundant amounts of blackberry and cassis flavors, considerable body, well integrated acidity, wood, and tannin, and a long finish."

Magpie Estate was founded in 1993 as the result of a blending of ideas between Rolf Binder of Veritas and Noel Young, the Cambridge wine merchant. The two hold a real passion for the Rhone varieties, such as Shiraz, Mourvedre and Grenache. The Barossa in South Australia is well suited to these varieties, and indeed Syrah (Shiraz), Grenache and Mourvedre (Mataro) make up some of the original plantings in the Barossa Valley. The two saw the creation of Magpie Estate as the chance to create something a little unique and different. The Magpie philosophy is to poke fun at wine pretention and to make wine that is good to drink, not just for show. All the wines come from the Barossa Valley and the Magpie expression changes from label to label and from vintage to vintage.