Grant Burge Meshach Shiraz 2008

Grant Burge Icon wines are named in honour of Meshach Burge, and the biblical origins of his name. The great grandfather of founder Grant Burge, he made the Barossa Valley home in 1855, beginning an enduring family winemaking tradition.

The award-winning Grant Burge Meshach is our flagship Shiraz, only released in vintages of outstanding quality, handpicked from near century old vines from the famed Barossa Valley. The fruit for this wine has tremendous concentration and intensity, making Meshach a powerful, yet beautifully balanced wine.
Winemaking with grapes from such old vines is kept simple. After crushing, the grapes were inoculated with yeast and remained in the open fermenters for between 8 to 10 days under careful observation. The fermenters were gently pumped over 2-3 times a day to start, with pump over times reduced as fermentation progressed, to slow tannin extraction and maintain balance. On completion of fermentation on skins, the wines were gently basket pressed and allowed to settle for 24 hours. The wines were then transferred into a combination of French and American oak for 21 months maturation prior to bottling, followed by bottle maturation for 3 years prior to release.

"Grant Burge never lacks confidence. "We picked before the heat wave and all our 2008 wines are outstanding," he says. Meshach is an old vine shiraz, grown on a vineyard that's been putting out dense-flavoured shiraz for over 100 years. It's matured in all-new French and American oak for two years and has always been an oak-rich, toast-heavy style of wine.

Malty vanillin oak sits separate from the fruit at present but it's just starting to seap down into the wine. The signs are good. Urgent, insistent tannin pulls dense, toasty, blackberried fruit along. This is an inky, toasty, bourbon-like wine. The tannin is big yet filigreed; Grange-esque. There's a sense of magnificence to this wine."
The Wine Front, April 2nd 2013. Campbell Mattinson 95+ Points

"Full crimson-purple; from the estate's 85-year-old Filsell Vineyard, the wine matured for two years in new American and French oak hogsheads, and a further two years in the cellar prior to release. Picked before the heatwave, it is an incredibly rich and plush shiraz, with black fruits, oak and dark chocolate all competing for attention. Will surely outlive its cork, 95 Points, James Halliday"