The General Shiraz 2016
Meet The General. An idea, an art form, and the very essence of the Barossa craft. The General is form and function. It’s something to marvel at, while eating dinner with friends. A bottle to prize, but one that’s never beyond opening.
Profile
The Wine
Decadent plum and cherry jam swagger with a chocolate and raisin edge. There’s a nice dash of oak, both new and old, lending structure. Broad-shouldered tannins enhance an already powerful presence. It’s big. But it’s contained too, waiting to pounce. Even after a few hours in a decanter, it’s a little secretive. Sexy but secretive; layered and alluring. Drink it now for hard-hitting precision, or let it age, and revel in softer, nuanced maturity. It’s everything a premium Barossa shiraz should be. Unabashedly seductive.
Made by Hentley Farm Wines
Over the past decade with Andrew Quin as winemaker, Keith Hentschke and Hentley Farm wines have gone from strength to strength, cementing a reputation as one of the absolute highest quality boutique wineries in Australia. The wines are all about elegance, finesse and structure, naturally with that Barossa signature of fruit richness, at the core. If there’s one thing that binds everything they do, it’s their attitude towards making everything to an incredibly high standard.
Hentley Farm are the only Barossa-dedicated winery (out of 160 in total) to have won the Halliday Winery of the Year award, which they did in 2015. And, in 2018’s Halliday Wine Companion, Hentley Farm had more wines at 96 points and above than any other winery in Australia!
We’ve swooned over many of their wines here at the ’fo, and couldn’t have been more excited to collaborate on The General. The excitement was justified. We can’t get enough of this!
Making wine is an art form. Whether you use Tassie pinot pointillism or bold Barossan brushstrokes, there’s scope for making something truly moving. When discussing the brief with Hentley Farm, this was a concept that united us all. We wanted to make a wine that was beautiful but functional. It’s not made for the mantelpiece, to gather dust and be forgotten. Cellar it happily, but know that this is destined for the dinner table.
This is art to enjoy, and to bring joy to all.
It’s cool, we get it, you want to know absolutely everything about this wine. Well here you go, go nuts.
Specs
- Region
- Barossa Valley
- Vintage
- 2016
- Cellaring
- 2026
- Preservatives
- Sulphites
- Alcohol by Vol.
- 14.5%
- Closure
- Screwcap
- Bottle Vol
- 750mL
- Blend Info
- 100% Shiraz
- Serving Temp.
- 17.0°C
Tasting
From the producer
Decadent mulberry, plum and cinnamon spice, with hints of savoury, chocolate-covered craisins. The palate reveals a rich, full body of ripe cherry and plum jam. Its plush and juicy mid-palate signifies all the hallmarks and sprit of the Western Ridge. With aging potential in the vicinity of 5-7 years, the General provides equal parts artful structure and fresh vibrancy.
Winemaking
Viticulture
On the famed Western Ridge of the Barossa Valley, even and warm temperatures throughout the growing season combined with clay loam soils over limestone. It's the perfect mesoclimate to produce saturated colour, ripe tannins and rich fruit.
Crafting
Fruit was crushed and destemmed prior to fermentation, during which 2-3 pump overs a day were used to ensure that each wine achieved a full tannin structure. After 8-10 days on skins, the wine was pressed to new (10%) and old French and American oak, where it completed secondary fermentation. After 30 months in oak, the wine was blended and bottled in November 2018. No fining or filtration was used in the production of this wine.
Producer
Vinomofo
This wine has been made by us in collaboration with a hand-picked, boutique producer with both respectable history and irreverent awesomeness. These brands and wines are born from our passion for a variety, a region, a producer and having more control over the flavours that we want to see in a wine. These projects also allow us to get our favourite wines to you at value worth blogging about.
Region
Barossa Valley
'Barossa'. This is Australia's key wine brand overseas, in the US especially. It's our riposte to 'Champagne', 'Scotch' and 'Barolo'. My mind conjures these images, in this order: Shiraz, Penfolds wine, Maggie Beer condiments. All of which can GET - IN - MY - BELLY! But there is so much more to the Barossa than first glance. There are fringe (and not so fringe) winemakers actively working to classify the valley's subregions, and this is a very worthy cause. From Moppa to Seppeltsfield to Marananga there's a lot of variation, and the styles produced can vary immensely. This is the next step in the vision of this region (which, let's face it, is a baby in the scheme of things), as it gets acquainted with its strengths, weaknesses and future opportunities.It's a region that's not sorry to produce the big, fruit-driven wine styles that make it so popular. So drink to the future of the Barossa, because it's as bright as any other region on the world stage.
The rules are there ain’t no rules, but here are some foods we think will work pretty well with this wine...
Goes with
Braised shoulder of lamb
Ingredients
- For the lamb:
- 500 g greens, such as white cabbage, Savoy cabbage, Brussels tops or cavolo nero, leaves separated, stalks finely sliced
- 1 large bunch fresh rosemary
- 2 kg quality shoulder of lamb
- olive oil
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bulb garlic, unpeeled, broken into cloves
- For the smashed veg:
- 750 g potatoes, peeled, cut into large chunks
- 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
- ½ large swede, peeled and cut into small chunks
- 75 g butter
- For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 500 ml organic chicken or vegetable stock, hot
- 2 heaped tablespoons capers, soaked, drained and chopped
- 1 large bunch fresh mint, leaves picked
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Directions
- In this recipe I'm going to show you how utterly incredible a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb can be. In exchange I'd like you to buy quality local lamb that's had the appropriate amount of hanging time. I'm going to let the meat speak for itself and not add much to it, just a simple sauce made from all the goodness in the tray. You can make this at any time of year served with any seasonal veg.
- Preheat your oven to full whack. Slash the fat side of the lamb all over with a sharp knife. Lay half the sprigs of rosemary and half the garlic cloves on the bottom of a high-sided roasting tray, rub the lamb all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place it in the tray on top of the rosemary and garlic, and put the rest of the rosemary and garlic on top of the lamb. Tightly cover the tray with tinfoil and place in the oven. Turn the oven down immediately to 170°C/325°F/gas 3 and cook for 4 hours – it's done if you can pull the meat apart easily with two forks.
- When the lamb is nearly cooked, put your potatoes, carrots and swede into a large pot of boiling salted water and boil hard for 20 minutes or so until you can slide a knife into the swede easily. Drain and allow to steam dry, then smash them up in the pan with most of the butter. If you prefer a smooth texture, add some cooking water. Spoon into a bowl, cover with tinfoil and keep warm over a pan of simmering water.
- Remove the lamb from the oven and place it on a chopping board. Cover it with tinfoil, then a tea towel, and leave it to rest. Put a large pan of salted water on to boil for your greens. Pour away most of the fat from the roasting tray, discarding any bits of rosemary stalk. Put the tray on the hob and mix in the flour. Add the stock, stirring and scraping all the sticky goodness off the bottom of the tray. You won't need gallons of gravy, just a couple of flavoursome spoonfuls each. Add the capers, turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes.
- Finely chop the mint and add it to the sauce with the red wine vinegar at the last minute then pour into a jug. Add your greens and stalks to the pan of fast-boiling salted water and cook for 4 to 5 minutes to just soften them. Drain and toss with a knob of butter and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place everything in the middle of the table, and shred the lamb in front of your guests. Absolutely delish!