Tim Smith Shiraz

Tim Smith makes some of the Barossa's most polished mid-tier Shiraz, and this is real craft.

The fruit comes from old vines across the Barossa floor, some past a century old, blended from as many as a dozen vineyards. Around half usually comes from Eden Valley, higher and cooler than the floor, which lifts the aromatics against the floor fruit's weight.

Tim Smith ferments on wild yeast and skips fining and filtration, leaving the wine close to how it comes off the ferment. It ages in French oak, mostly 500-litre puncheons rather than smaller barrels, which slows the oak down and keeps the fruit out front.

Smith worked as a roadie for touring rock bands before he found his way into Barossa cellars. He spent two decades there before starting his own label in 2001. Pour it with anything off the barbecue, and decant it if you're drinking it young.