Teusner Righteous FG Shiraz

“Depending on your perspective, to be ‘Righteous’ can imply many things…to be virtuous…awesome, amazing, cool and exciting…the ultimate of anything…bordering on divine. From our perspective, our very best Shiraz is all of these things! Now if there’s one bloke with a ‘righteous’ way of describing top quality Barossa Shiraz, it has to be Pete Gago at Penfolds. The gulf between the way he talks about Shiraz and the way we do it at Teusner is matched only by the price of their top drink and mine. I await with anticipation each year’s new vintage Grange tasting notes…and I quote;

“Tannins focus on the roof of the mouth, laden with an additional film of (85% cacao) dark chocolate, mocha. A mix of quince and sesame-paste laden with basted meats and saturated stewed plum, boysenberry, blueberry. Tightly bound – wait for decompression! Complete, Confident, Convincing.”

WOW!…I reckon he’s getting better with age! Through a network of mates who own vineyards across the Barossa, I get to see some of the best Shiraz there is… in this valley that produces some of the best of the stuff you’ll see in the world. Weather beaten old buggers enduring year after year in tough soils…producing tiny crops of small berries jumping with flavour…intense black fruits, plums, dark chocolate and warm spices. In the winery we treat these old blokes with the respect they deserve…hand picked, ‘Rolls Royce’ treatment all the way…fermented in open vats with twice daily pump-overs before spending some time resting up in a mix of new French (50%) and a bit of older, seasoned gear. Packed with Barossa Shiraz goodness, the flavours seem to go on and on and on. The years are being very kind to us, this latest release is right up there…and “FG” just seems to say it it all when it comes to describing the best Shiraz at Teusner!”