Paringa Estate 2008 The Paringa Shiraz

Lindsay McCall at Paringa Estate on the Mornington Peninsula has a track record of producing excellent cool-climate shirazes. This is a single vineyard wine (effectively the winery's reserve shiraz) that simply oozes class. Dark pepper and plummy notes on the nose lead to rich plum, cassis and spice notes on the palate, which has intriguing textural elements. The wine spent 18 months in French oak that has been beautifully integrated. It has power, elegance, and great structure, and  will cellar well for a decade or more - although there was not a drop left in the bottle I sampled the other day. $80.