Hewitson The Mad Hatter Shiraz 2020

Yet another superb Barossa Shiraz, again from the powerful 2020 vintage, this one is from a single vineyard. After crushing and destemming, the grapes saw a cold soak for a week and a further three weeks on skins, before sixteen months in ‘freshly seasoned’ French oak barriques. The darkest magenta, we have notes of plush, dense chocolate. The nose just grabs you and tells you that you’ll love this wine. There is power and concentration, and a great future, but it also offers joy now. The chocolate persists throughout and we have beefstock, soy, licorice, plums and black fruits. This is very, very long and with extremely fine tannins. Wonderful wine which will drink superbly for two decades. The score should go even higher during that period. Drink: 2022-2042. Score – 96. (Ken Gargett, winepilot.com, June 2022)