A true Icon, The Centurion takes its name from of one of Australia’s and indeed the World’s oldest surviving vineyards, planted in 1892 by brothers Walter and Clement Philipson. Changing hands to Thomas Wigley in 1893, acquired by Burton Wyndam Hamilton in 1947 and passed to Dr Richard Hamilton.

Centurion Shiraz 2019 is a classy Shiraz showing aromatics and spicy perfumed lifted enhanced through beautifully integrated French oak which provides a subtle cedar background to the cherry plum fruits. Generous and flavoursome, the palate has silky tannins and lovely persistence. The structure retains the hallmark elegant seamlessness of this pedigree Shiraz. Perfectly balanced. Designed to mature and develop to give many years of drinking pleasure, 10 years at least.

Bouquet

Beautifully integrated with the finest French oak, this elegant yet rich Shiraz has perfumed fruit showing plum and cherry nuances with hints of cloves and nutmeg.

Palate

Ripe, long, fine, silky tannins provide a wonderfully elegant structure to this Shiraz. Its persistence of flavour finishes clean and tight.

Cellaring

Centurion Shiraz 2019 is designed to mature and develop to give many years of drinking pleasure. 10 years at least.

Winemaking

Each year we strive to gain even a little more perfection to making this wine. While the essential element in the making of Centurion is the critical quality selection of the fruit from the 1892 plantings, we augment the style using several techniques.

All ferments are small scale – we purchased a third vat in 2017 to allow most of the components to be fermented in oak. Some even smaller ferments are hand plunged with some whole bunches to build structure and aromatics.

Ultimately, maturation was in a combination of hogsheads and vats with several workings and swapping of vessels to promote longevity of the wine and enhance the palate length.