Closed for Easter
Due to exciting renovations at the winery, the Shaw + Smith Tasting Room will be closed for the Easter period (Friday 18th - Monday 21st April inclusive). We apologise for any inconvenience and wish everyone a fabulous Easter break.
11/04/2014 at 4:22 PM
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Recent winner of a case of Award Winning '09 Aged-Released Shiraz
Congratulations to Loraine Psarros - you won a case (6) of award-winning 2009 Aged Release Shiraz.
Thank you to everyone who has entered our recent competition.
07/04/2014 at 1:09 PM
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Vintage 14 continues
VINTAGE UPDATE 2014
Next on Shaw + Smith’s picking list is Shiraz, and we’re excited about the slow, cool end to the season which has given rise to amazing flavour and balance at relatively low baumé levels (a measure of the amount of sugar that is concentrated in the wine). Spice and floral aromas are wafting out from our favourite S+S blocks.
The Chardonnay ferment is now ticking along nicely and we are happy to see what we thought were great flavours in the vineyard showing up in the fermented batches. Savvy is also fermenting away, working its magic, and the filing the cellar with its wonderful aromas.
Watch this space.
31/03/2014 at 12:48 PM
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Winewise Championship 2014 - Outstanding Shiraz
We are very happy to receive the Winewise Championship Outstanding score for our 2012 Shiraz, but we are more excited about the comments!
Winewise Championship 2014 (source)
2012 Shaw + Smith Shiraz
"We’ll say it yet again. The Shaw + Smith Shiraz is one of Australia’s best reds. Forget auction prices. Forget the over-hyped “classics”. This is the real deal – opulently varietal, fresh and concentrated, with polished tannins."
Score: Outstanding
25/03/2014 at 10:05 AM
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Vintage 14
What started as an early start to vintage, slowed down with some unseasonal rains allowing the vineyards to recover from heat. This was followed by a cool slow ripening period, keeping the grapes longer on the vines, increasing fruit intensity and flavour - always a good thing. Now we are in full swing with the cellar on 24 hour shifts. Dan, one of our vintage interns tweets "My hands are finally getting leathery, discoloured and generally manly. Thank you #v14@shawandsmith"!
Challenging vintages show the extraordinary value of years of experience and knowledge. Ray Guerin (Viticulturist of the Year 2013) and winemaker, Adam Wadewitz have just come from the Woodlot vineyard, Balhannah and believe its some of the best Sauvignon Blanc flavours they have seen. Chardonnay looks like the stand out variety for the season. We are still a couple of weeks off picking the shiraz and although the yields are looking low, Ray and Adam are excited about the potential quality.
11/03/2014 at 9:29 AM
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Recent winner of a case of Award Winning '09 Aged-Released Shiraz
Congratulations to Kathryn Hall - you won a case (6) of award-winning 2009 Aged Release Shiraz.
Thank you to everyone who has entered our recent competition.
03/02/2014 at 11:13 AM
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Recent winner of a case of Award Winning '09 Aged-Released Shiraz
Congratulations to Denis MacFarlane - you won a case (6) of award-winning 2009 Aged Release Shiraz.
Thank you to everyone who has entered our recent competition.
13/10/2013 at 4:25 PM
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Ray Guerin - Viticulturist of the Year 2013!
GREAT NEWS - OUR VITICULTURIST RAY GUERIN HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED VITICULTURIST OF THE YEAR!
As every winemaker knows grape quality is key so best practice in the vineyard is vitally important to us at Shaw + Smith.
Ray was the unanimous choice of the panel, announced last night at the 2013 Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year awards.
Ray is as dedicated as they come and we couldn't be happier for him!
25/09/2013 at 1:30 AM
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Winner of the luxury weekend at Southern Ocean Lodge
Congratulations to Jacquie Elliott from QLD - you are the winner of the Shaw + Smith luxury weekend at Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island.
Thank you to everyone who has entered our luxury weekend at Southern Ocean Lodge competition. We have had an overwhelming response and are so pleased to partner with Southern Ocean Lodge and Habitus to bring you this amazing prize.
08/07/2013 at 10:39 AM
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2013 Vintage Report - Martin Shaw and David LeMire MW
Winter / Spring rainfall - Winter rainfall for Balhannah was 70mm below the long-term average though irrigation dams were full by late July. In Mid-September rainfall virtually ceased. From October through to harvest there was only an additional 80mm recorded.
Flowering – Flowering was underway early, beginning on November 10th, and weather conditions were excellent. This meant 2013 had the potential to be a high-yielding year, and it was important to control yields to achieve ripeness and concentration.
Weather up to and including harvest - The season was warmer than usual with an occasional one and two day heat spike. The positive was the consistently cool nights that tempered the season in general. It was a year of high irrigation demand to establish adequate vine growth early in the season then to retain it through to harvest. However it was a very easy year in terms of disease risk, with no disease issues at all. Harvest began early on February 16th for clone 777 Pinot Noir, and was underway for Sauvignon Blanc on February 21st.
Stand out varieties - Some great examples of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. The caveat being that you needed good vine health to endure heat spikes and a moderate yield to allow you to pick at the optimum time. Thinning fruit to achieve our target yields was crucial, and in the case of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, some blocks were thinned twice, and some three times.
Overall quality – taking into account a warmer than average growing season and a compressed harvest window we have been pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of fruit from the 2013 Vintage. The white wines look very solid, but it may be the reds that have the edge at this early stage as they continue to impress in the winery.
15/04/2013 at 4:36 PM
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