Tyrrell's 4 Acres Shiraz

4 Acres Shiraz comes from a prized block of old, dry-grown vines that were planted in 1879, making them among the very oldest in the country. The soils are a ferrous red to yellowish clay, with Brokenback looming beyond. A lower Hunter landmark, its silhouette shimmies into the stretch of the Great Divide, just as the pixelated freshness, consummate elegance and classy mid-weighted restraint of the 4 Acres lingers long into the memory bank. Maker Chris Tyrrell opts to glean colour, aromatic compounds and tannin via long, gentle macerations rather than with aggressive extraction techniques. Easy and gentle is the creed that transports one back to a Hunter of savoury wines of poise, exactitude and drinkability. Here they are again, serving as a regional flagship that belies the obvious power of shiraz from other regions. 4 Acres Shiraz is a wine that boasts fidelity to place, but moreso, an inimitability suffused with an indomitable Hunter spirit.