Langton’s Selections Heathcote Estate Shiraz Heathcote Estate, next door to Jasper Hill, was established by Yarra Ridge founder Louis Bialkower and Village Roadshow’s Robert Kirby in 1999. Their aim was to produce a first class Heathcote Shiraz to rival Australia’s finest. Todd Dexter and New Zealand based vino-supremo Larry McKenna (consulting wine director) make a formidable winemaking duo. The Heathcote Shiraz is a bloody good wine and does much to show the wonderful potential of the region. The wines have blackberry/dark chocolate/cedar aromas, well integrated mocha oak and chalky tannins. Typically the wine is batch-vinified in both open and closed fermenters with up to three weeks total time on skins. The wine is then pressed off and transferred into a combination of 30% new and seasoned oak (mostly French/10% American) barrels for around 18 months before bottling. A soupcon of Grenache is used in the blend presumably to give fragrance and lift. The Heathcote Estate Grenache Noir (just a fancy name for Grenache) is a relatively new addition and sees about 7% Shiraz. The wines are sealed with technical cork. Heathcote Estate is a very important up and coming Heathcote producer. It has the Cap-Ex, the right vineyard resources and the technical know how to make something enduring and special. Certainly the wine critics have got right behind it. Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's