2020 RunRig

This beautifully composed 2020 RunRig, a blend of Shiraz with a touch of Viognier, is a masterpiece bringing together dense tannins with immaculate fruit in a package built for the cellar. It boasts impressively concentrated black licorice, black pepper, coal fire, tar and cocoa aromas, with high-quality oak along for the ride. Bone dry and firm. It's brooding, with flavors held tightly against a wall of tannins before slowly unwinding over a seriously long finish. Give it time, as this is far from ready.

- Angus Hughson (03/2023)

Aromatic and distinctive, with oolong tea, sage and a touch of lavender, plus accents of salted toffee to complement the core of blueberry and blackberry notes. Delivers dense but fine-grained tannins, firming up on the finish, where cigar box notes linger. Shiraz and Viognier. Drink now through 2030. 865 cases made, 200 cases imported.

- M.A.W. (11/2023)

Tasting the RunRig beside the Descendant is always a wise move, in order to gain some contextual understanding of how they are similar and, perhaps more importantly, how they differ. This 2020 RunRig was sourced from six different vineyards across Barossa (in Lyndoch, Rowland Flat, Moppa, Ebenezer, Light Pass and Greenock) and includes a 2% "dosage" (as winemaker Ian Hongell described it) of Viognier. Matured for 30 months in a combination of new French oak (50%) and second and third fill barrels, the wine rests on its lees for that time. The lower percentage of Viognier here is a seductive and effective thing, adding just enough slick and polish to make this the sybaritic wine that it is, but little enough to allow the grunt, grit and muscle of the Shiraz from all those glorious locations to shine through. Despite the very long time in oak, the wine is balanced and excellent, big in almost every possible way but with an undeniable sense of class and length of flavor. Executed with detail and precision, this wine is clearly defined in its expression of house style.

- Erin Larkin (04/2023)