Torbreck Runrig Shiraz Viognier Barossa Valley 2020 《Terroir Collection - TAU009》

Region : Barossa Valley - Lyndoch, Rowland Flat, Moppa, Ebenezer, Light Pass and Greenock  

Grapes : 98% Shiraz, 2% Viognier

Alcohol : 15.5% vol

Website:  https://torbreck.com/

🌟《Investment Grade Wines》1 of the 38 only Wines

🌟 Robert Parker - Once rated Torbreck as one of the Top 100 Winery in the World

🏅 Wine Advocate 97+ pts

🏅 James Suckling 97 pts

🏅 Vinous 97 pts

🏅 Wine Enthusiast 96 pts

🏅 Wine Spectator 93 pts

VINIFICATION: 

30 months on new (50%), second fill and third fill French oak barriques, completing a natural malolactic fermentation in barrel and resting on fine lees throughout maturation to enhance texture.

RunRig often draws comparison with the beautifully fragrant and tautly structured wines from the steep slopes of the Northern Rhône Valley’s Appellation of Côte Rôtie.

Shiraz from old dry grown Barossa vineyards is blended with Viognier, complementing the strengths and complexities of these individual parcels of fruit, whilst giving the resulting wine a further dimension.

Although wonderfully aromatic, RunRig also exhibits a power and latent richness making it more akin to the hugely concentrated wines sourced from the sun drenched hill of Hermitage – the historic home of Syrah and some of the world’s most powerful and longest living wines.

Torbreck is the name of a forest near Inverness, Scotland. You’ll find more than a passing nod to the Celts in our wine naming conventions including this reference to the “RunRig” system of land distribution among Highland clansmen. Their widely dispersed holdings were managed communally rather than as any one farm…not unlike this complementary blend of Shiraz and Viognier making the sum of the parts greater than the whole.

The vision is to Torbreck Vintners, which was founded in 1994, was born out of a desire to create some of the greatest wines in the world by using the incredibly old, dry-grown, Shiraz vineyards that surround the Barossa Valley. Securing these vineyards initially involved share-farming the property, a practice which involves paying the owner a percentage of the market rate for their grapes in return for managing the vineyard. It was this share-farming principle, together with their selection of some of the most highly prized vineyards, that formed the founding pillars of Torbreck’s incredible international success. The vineyards, in particular, enabled them to source some of the very best fruit in the Barossa Valley, which is home to some of the oldest and most precious vines in the world. Provenance is everything to Torbreck. They believe that the Barossa Valley, with its gentle Mediterranean climate and 175 year history of Silesian and English winemaking, is most exciting place in the world to make wine. There is a European sense of tradition here that means that vines planted in the 1840s – many of them Rhone varieties such as Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvédre– still thrive and bear fruit of unique concentration and flavour.

It was by drawing on this tradition that Torbreck produced their first wine, Run Rig, in 1995 which was crushed from just three tonnes of Shiraz and Viognier grapes.

Today, Torbreck pays tribute to these vineyards with minimal intervention, creating wines of richness, structure and length that age gracefully.

Whilst the company’s reputation is largely based around its red wines, they have also used the Descendant vineyard to plant Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne which are blended into white wine.

Torbreck’s vision of creating a 100%estate-produced and bottled wine was realised in 2008 when a new winery and administration facility was opened on land acquired from a neighbouring property. This facility enables the grapes to be hand picked, and vinified using the best and most modern equipment available. The wine is then matured in temperature controlled cellars and bottled ‘on the estate’ using a state-of-the art bottling line, before being shipped to many of the world’s best restaurants and fine wine retailers.

Today they also have a beautiful cellar door in which to welcome visitors to taste their excellent Barossa wines.

Since its founding in 1994, Torbreck has been committed to creating exceptional Rhone style red and white wines that reveal the true character of the Barossa’s very best vineyards.

Torbreck is the name of a forest near Inverness, Scotland and there is more than a passing nod to the Celts in their wine naming conventions.

The Laird of the Estate in Scotland is the Lord of the Manor and master of all he surveys, and is an apt name for Torbreck’s flagship wine – a single vineyard Shiraz comes from an old vineyard in Marananga and spends three years in Dominque Laurent barriques.

🏅 Wine Advocate 97+ pts

This 2020 RunRig was sourced from six different vineyards across Barossa (in Lyndoch, Rowland Flat, Moppa, Ebenezer, Light Pass and Greenock) and includes a 2% "dosage" (as winemaker Ian Hongell described it) of Viognier. Matured for 30 months in a combination of new French oak (50%) and second and third fill barrels, the wine rests on its lees for that time. The lower percentage of Viognier here is a seductive and effective thing, adding just enough slick and polish to make this the sybaritic wine that it is, but little enough to allow the grunt, grit and muscle of the Shiraz from all those glorious locations to shine through. Despite the very long time in oak, the wine is balanced and excellent, big in almost every possible way but with an undeniable sense of class and length of flavor. Executed with detail and precision, this wine is clearly defined in its expression of house style.

🏅 James Suckling 97 pts

This is so aromatic with flowers, orange blossom, and black berries with sliced mushrooms and earth. Surreal. Medium to full body, with bark and blackberry character. Some bramble berry, too. Chewy and delicious. Old vine uniqueness. Some grapes come from vines as old as 1858.

🏅 Vinous 97 pts

This beautifully composed 2020 RunRig, a blend of Shiraz with a touch of Viognier, is a masterpiece bringing togetherdense tannins with immaculate fruit in a package built for the cellar. lt boasts impressively concentrated black licoriceblack pepper, coal fire, tar and cocoa aromas, with high-quality oak along for the ride. Bone dry and firm. lt's broodingwith flavors held tightly against a wall of tannins before slowly unwinding over a seriously long finish. Give it time, asthis is far from ready.

🏅 Wine Enthusiast 96 pts

Rich, evocative aromas of mulberry, blueberry, coffee bean and hot-cocoa mix lend approachability to what is otherwise a rich, dense wine, packed with flavor, but also with powerful, chalk dust tannins that need serious protein if opening now.

🏅 Wine Spectator 93 pts

Aromatic and distinctive, with oolong tea, sage and a touch of lavender, plus accents of salted toffee to complement the core of blueberry and blackberry notes. Delivers dense but fine-grained tannins, firming up on the finish, where cigar box notes linger.

$1680/bottle