Kay Brothers Block 6 Shiraz 2016

The story of the Kay family can be traced back to 1724 in Scotland and ancestory of the vines in McLaren Vale their beloved Block 6, planted in 1892. With that pride comes plenty of intricate planning to care for vines of such venerable age. Their methods may be old fashioned, but Kay Brothers are proud to make their McLaren Vale wines that truly express their terroir. The aim in the winery is to do whatever they can to preserve the amazing flavours and characters nature provides in the vineyard. To achieve this, they strive to be as gentle as possible from harvest all the way through to the original open fermenters, hand plunging and their heritage 1928 basket press made in small batches.

Kay Brothers' flagship wine, handpicked from Shiraz vines planted in 1892. Long held in high esteem as one of McLaren Vale’s finest Shiraz plantings, Block 6 Shiraz continues the tradition at Kay Brothers of producing full bodied red wines that have the grace and pedigree to age for decades. Handpicked and fermented in the original open top fermenters, Block 6 Shiraz is a wine of great strength, deep complexity and amazing vibrancy. The Block 6 vineyard faces east and rows run north south with significant undulation. The vines are cane pruned with the canes wrapped onto the top wire of the low lying trellis. The present 1.5 hectares comprises a corner of red loam, some heavy clay in the middle of the block and gravelly alluvial soils on the lower side. The underlying “South Maslin Sands” geology is extremely complex containing layers of glauconite, limestone, sandstone and siltstone.

Langtons Classification - Outstanding

"The front label boldly declares, "Handpicked from 124 year old vines", a teaser to the seamless complexity and effortless confidence of this lauded label. 2016 goes down among my favourites yet, for its calm juxtaposition of reverberating depth of satsuma plum and black cherry fruits and exotic spice and its finely poised structure of firm, finely textured tannins and gliding persistence. 14.0%. $95.00" 96 Points - Tyson Stelzer, WBM Magazine, Sept-Oct 2018

"Surprise. I looked on the shelf at MBTF, and sighted this. Liquorice and blackness; could somebody please turn the lights back on? Full bodied, dense and massed with silty smooth tannin, black olives rolled in dried herb, iron, some vanilla oak prettiness, bright boysenberry acidity pushes it along, and then a long savoury earthen finish. Brooding and magnificent. It’s a top shelf Block 6." 96 Points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, September 2018, Drink: 2022 - 2038+