Winemaker's Comments

In a perfect world everything fits into its place. But sometimes, just sometimes, you find that the square peg/round hole syndrome is alive and well. This label was first created in 2011, when a few barrels that were designated to be the famous Kiss Shiraz didn’t quite make the cut, and a few barrels of Sweetwater vineyard Shiraz likewise just didn’t quite match that wine’s style. With tongue in cheek, we affectionately referred to these ‘left-over’ barrels as the “Lips and Arseholes”, and blended them together to create quite an exceptional Hunter Valley shiraz.

The wine was extremely well received, so we decided to continue the label in subsequent vintages by making an actual barrel selection for the blend.

The 2013 vintage is made up of a selection of some newer barrels from the Pokolbin Estate vineyard, from both the older vines (Kiss) and younger vines (Dam Block), and two barrels from the Sweetwater vineyard.

A small quantity of this wine was held back in our climate-controlled cellar (15C) for re-release with 10 years bottle-age.

Tasting Notes

At 10 years, this wine displays a bright medium-deep ruby colour with a garnet fleck. Complex nose of dried dark fruits, woodsmoke, suntanned leather, exotic brown spices and sandalwood.

The palate is a cascade of flavours, think dried blue and blackberries with hints of açai. The tannins are soft ripe and well integrated around a core of complex notes of charcuterie, espresso, black pepper and olive tapenade. As the lengthy palate unfolds in the glass it reveals even more.
Decant and enjoy.

Drink 2023 to 2033+

ABV - 13.8%
Production - 287 Dozen
Cellared and re-released 2023 - 48 dozen