Peter Lehmann Futures Shiraz 2008

The first wine we (Peter Lehmann) ever sold was called ‘The Futures Shiraz’ and we sold it to our friends and family on a ‘pay now and we’ll deliver in two years’ arrangement. It certainly wasn’t some flash marketing gimmick – we didn’t even have a marketing department then. In all honesty, it was simply we needed the cash when we started to ensure we did in fact have a future! The 1980 Barossa Valley Futures Shiraz was a magnificent wine when it was first released and when we look back at all the Shiraz we have made over the past quarter century or more, that very first wine we made in 1980 still drinks remarkably well. 

That’s the incredible thing about Barossa Shiraz – you can enjoy it young when we release it from our cellars, but it’s also capable of extraordinary longevity. Futures Shiraz is classic Barossa Shiraz. And in keeping with the tradition of Peter Lehmann’s Barossa Shiraz, this is an eminently enjoyable wine when we release it from our cellars, but will faithfully reward long term cellar maturation. This wine has a deep rich red colour, a brooding centre and a bright rim. On the nose it shows ripe plum, dark chocolate, black olives and a hint of currants. It has a rich and velvety palate with a fruit intensity which comes only from low-yielding Shiraz vines. It has a superb firm tannin structure and a long, balanced finish, ensuring a long life in the bottle

"Dark chocolate, dark fruit, light spice and savoury things – earth, leather and black olives. Flush full of fruit with textured tannin – not too heavy, but enough to chew on. Spice and chocolate to finish, with a some brighter raspberry fruit. Appealing. It has a bit of grunt and good flavour – and an appealing flavour profile it is too. 92 Points." - Gary Walsh.