Colour: 
Full dense deep red with ruby highlights.

Bouquet: 
Full ripe and superbly varietal Shiraz highlighted with integrated French oak to show cedar, vanilla and mocha characters.

Palate: 
Full bodied palate of great length, but tempered with fine, long tannins to give finesse, elegance and style.

Food Suggestions: 
Savour this wine in large fine glass to complement venison, duck or rare eye fillet of beef.

Cellaring Potential:
 A fine wine that will age gracefully for 10 or more years.

Winemaking Notes:
The essential element in the making of Centurion is the critical quality selection of the fruit from these 1892 vines before hand harvesting. Fermentation is carried out in small static fermenters with manual pump-overs three times a day during peak fermentation and approximately 50% is run down to complete its fermentation in oak. The juice-concentrated remainder was allowed to reach dryness on skins and, following gentle pressing, free run and pressings were matured separately in French oak, with two workings to soften and mature the wine. From these components the final blend was assembled. A major emphasis is in the promotion of long silky tannins on the palate and a lively fruit that will mature elegantly over a long period. Prior to bottling in November 2007, the wine received a light egg fining.

Background Information:
Planted in 1892 the vineyard is amongst the oldest in the region, indeed in Australia. Situated at the back of the Old Hut Block the Shiraz is on original rootstock grown in grey loams over old river clay with underlying limestone. The vineyard lies at the southern end of the McLaren Vale strip and contains some of the best soils in the district, evidenced in the wines year after year. The vineyard has a south-eastern aspect with a small rise at one end that takes full advantage of the cooler morning sun. The climate is moderate and tempered by the cool sea breezes from
the Gulf of St. Vincent some 8 kilometres away. 

Oak:
16 months in French oak (12% new, 88% 2 year old)