Handpicked Regional Selection Shiraz 2018
This wine is everything we've come to expect from a Barossa Valley Shiraz – loads of spicy dark fruit with flavoursome oak and supple tannins.
Wine Style: Big & bold, red, full-bodied Food Pairing: Spicy hot pot, vegetarian stew, beef bourguignon, barbecued lamb Serving Temperature: 16°C "Beautifully ripe and fragrant with blackberry, sweet cherry, vanilla, mixed spice and roasted nut characters, it's supple and juicy in the mouth delivering fleshy texture and silky flow. Flavoursome and delightfully appealing. At its best: now to 2028." Wine Orbit
First Drop Cold Sweat Eden Valley Syrah – Moculta (Single Vineyard) 2014
Eden Valley is the perfect backdrop for us to further push our vinous boundaries. At a higher elevation than the Barossa Valley below, we embrace the funk to make even more diverse expressions of Syrah that speak of their unique sites. It’s all about the one. Give the drummer some! With this Eden Valley project we are looking for the ultimate expressions of three cooler climate sites and working hard to find them, utilising all our experience. Syrah from a single vineyard in Moculta.
Colour: Garnet red with purple hues
Nose: A complex nose of dark cherry, savoury and spice aromas
Palate: A brooding palate of grainy tannins support complex dark cherry, earthy and savoury flavours.
"A more conventional syrah, but that doesn’t make it any less attractive as it’s impressively well made. Fresh blackberry compote, fresh herbs, dark licorice, hot stones and cassis. Full-bodied with a lovely line of acidity that runs all the way through the layers of black fruit and right up to the chewy finish. Drink in 2022." - 95 points, James Suckling
Starward Coffee Old Fashioned Cocktail
Coffee Old Fashioned is our take on a classic cocktail recipe, with a typically Melburnian caffeinated kick. We start with our award-winning whisky, aged in Melbourne’s variable weather in red wine barrels from world-class local wineries. Together with Mr Black’s delicious cold brew coffee liqueur and our distillery made orange bitters, we intended our rich, fruity whisky to shine in a cocktail. Taste this, and we rest our case.
Pour over ice with a twist of orange peel to garnish. Best served with chocolatey dessert or tiramisu. One word of warning though. Bring this to a party, and it might just steal the limelight.
Nose: Intense coffee, vanilla with a hint of orange peel.
Palate: Coffee forward followed by dark chocolate and cacao.
Finish: Textural and rounding. Vanilla and light roasted coffee bean.
First Drop Cold Sweat Eden Valley Syrah – Craneford (Single Vineyard) 2014
Eden Valley is the perfect backdrop for us to further push our vinous boundaries. At a higher elevation than the Barossa Valley below, we embrace the funk to make even more diverse expressions of Syrah that speak of their unique sites. It’s all about the one. Give the drummer some! With this Eden Valley project we are looking for the ultimate expressions of three cooler climate sites and working hard to find them, utilising all our experience. Syrah from a single vineyard in Craneford.
Colour: Garnet red with purple hues
Nose: Complex nose of dark cherry, tomato leaf, celery and pepper spice.
Palate: A textured palate of fine graphite tannins support complex dark cherry, savoury and Bloody Mary flavours.
Yangarra Old Vine Grenache (MLV) 2022
Starward Ginger Beer Cask #6
Starward Ginger Beer Cask is back, our most popular and sought after Starward Project to date. Now in its sixth release, this delicious single malt whisky is more expressive than ever and the team’s most experimental to date. The ginger beer recipe is a closely guarded secret by the distillery production team but includes huge amounts of ginger, lemongrass and citrus peel. The ginger beer was brewed in-house and aged in EX Starward whisky barrels for 6 months before being disgorged. Our red wine and Apera casks were blended together before being finished in the ginger beer casks for over a further 6 months and bottled. Loaded with citrus peel and spicy ginger, it’s a zesty little number with aromas of dark chocolate and orange, with a palate of fiery ginger, fresh vanilla, and pineapple.
Nose: Ginger, orange and dark chocolate.
Palate: Strong spicy ginger, fresh vanilla and pineapple, balanced by sweet raisins and fig.
Finish: A big, warming mouthfeel with candied ginger and citrus.
Starward Dolce
Dolce, a single, limited release, is a melding of juicy wine and oak characters with a flourish of sweet ‘Sicilian’ notes; marshmallow and cola. A twice distilled single malt spirit. Made with Australian barley and brewers' yeast for extra flavour. This Single Malt Australian Whisky was matured in Australian red wine barrels and then finished in barrels that held an Australian interpretation of a Sicilian Dessert Wine.
It is the newest release from the Starward Projects, a program where distillers get to experiment with different whiskies and create flavour forward and unique expressions. That is why Dolce is unlike any released before. Intriguing marshmallow and cola characters melding with the Starward stamp of red wine barrel maturation, it is an embodiment of the Italian word for sweet, Dolce. This one's a stunning straight sipper, especially with a cheeseboard, after dinner or just as your dessert!
Nose: Dried fruits, toasted marshmallows, and marzipan.
Palate: Initial sweetness on the front palate, rich dried fruits, brown sugar, cola and toasted marshmallows.
Finish: Palate is viscous, caramelised but enough tannin leaving a well-balance finish.
First Drop Mother’s Ruin McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
VINTAGE 2019: A very dry winter and spring, with frost events in September and November disrupting bud burst and flowering, resulted in the lightest crops in the past decade. January and February were warm and dry, and in conjunction with the low yields, ripening was rapid. Quick decision making and early picking resulted in reds with great intensity and structure thanks also to the light crops and early tannin maturity. 2019 was a challenging vintage, but one of the most rewarding, with our alternative varieties showing particularly well. The overall quality is a tribute to our growers and their perseverance in a difficult growing season. We salute you!
The fruit is crushed/destemmed and fermented at temperatures ranging from 20- 25°C for 10 days on skins. The ferment is managed by a variety of techniques, including ‘aerative pump overs’ and ‘drain and returns’ which assist in extracting colour, flavour and tannin from the grapes. At the end of fermentation, it is drained/pressed, and transferred to 10% new French oak barriques, and the balance to 3 and 4 year old French oak hogsheads to undergo MLF. Post MLF, sulphur dioxide is added, and the wines mature sur lie for 18 months.
Body: Medium Bodied
Varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon
Yangarra Roux Beaute Roussanne 2020
The 2019 growing season was very dry, which resulted in incredibly low yields. We had a relatively warm lead up to the ripening period, which produced a very condensed and fast harvest. With Roussanne being a late ripening variety, it faired very well in a season like this, giving rise to concentration, freshness of flavor and marked natural acidity.
Hand-picked from Block 6 (1.0 ha) on March 16th, our oldest Roussanne planting which is now 15 years old. 50% is destemmed, crushed, and filled to 675L ceramic eggs, where it is fermented and remains on the skins for 193 days. The other 50% is pressed into ceramic eggs and fermented off of the skins. The final blend was 40% extended skin batch and 60% without skin contact. The final blend was 40% extended skin batch and 60% without skin contact. Bottled November 2019.
“A lovely nose of lemon curd, chamomile and crushed thyme. Medium-bodied with silky texture. Bright acidity and fresh citrus fruit wash over the palate. Taut and crisp. Refreshing tannins at the finish. Tropical fruit such as pineapple. From organically grown grapes. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink now. Screw cap.” – 94 points, Nick Stock at James Suckling