In our last newsletter we proudly reported our new status as a Halliday 5 star winery. That means Mr Halliday ranks us among the top 7 percent of Australian wineries—very nice!
Scores of 96 points for The Sultan and 95 points for The Prince were key to our elevation to 5 star status; but our record of producing consistently high scoring Shiraz over the years was equally important.
Check out our New Look – While serious Shiraz lovers prize the luscious flavour of our wines above all else, for many people the label is important too. So we’ve gone with new look labels for our latest releases. They’re designed to match the refinement and sophistication of our wines—we hope you like them.
A good looking label is all well and good, but at the end of the day we want to drink the wine and enjoy it at its best. A question our shiraz drinkers often ask is “when is the best time to drink Talbots Block?”
Simply put, no matter whether you choose The Prince or The Sultan, any time is a good time to drink our Shiraz.
Talbots Block wines are always ready to drink when we release them; and they just keep getting better with each passing year.
The best time—depends mostly on your individual taste preference, but your mood and the occasion are factors too. Basically it all comes down to the following:
If you really hanker for big bold vibrant, fruit driven wines you should drink our wines when they are relatively young—say 2-3 years old.
If you prefer a Shiraz that has more elegant fruit character, with softer more velvety texture, and a rounder more delicate bouquet—you should go for an older wine. These qualities begin to really come to the fore when our Shiraz is around 4-5 years old.
What happens with more age? You will continue to see subtle changes in the wines for many years—Halliday reckons our wines should still be drinking beautifully for 20 or even 30 years. So if you’re the patient type cellaring could pay handsome rewards. For many people though, long term cellaring is not really an option.
If you have problems with cellaring, it is still possible to get your hands on older Talbots Block wines—occasionally we offer very small volume subscriber specials on some of our back vintage wines. Stay tuned to our newsletters for our next such special; and above all, when the opportunity arises—act quickly. [Hint: we might do a Christmas special…]
For now though we’re still offering both the 2014 and 2015 vintages of The Sultan, and the 2015 and 2016 vintages of The Prince—rarely have our drinkers had so much choice! Let our guidance above help you choose. Talbots Block subscribers who buy online by the dozen now will get 20% off RRP. To shop click here, and be sure to enter our coupon code FOT13.
