Langtons Selections Veritas Hanisch Shiraz, Veritas Heysen Shiraz, Magpie Estate The Malcolm Shiraz The new Veritas winery on Seppelt Road is a monument to the spectacular recent success of the politically incorrect, but highly amusing, Rolf Binder. His wines are rarely offered on the Australian secondary market as most of his top wines find their way onto the US and European markets. It is also a reflection of taste. Local Australian critics are well known for deriding over-lavish and massively proportioned wines. The Hanisch and Heysen Shirazes are at the ultra-ripe end of the Barossa Shiraz spectrum with deep-set blackberry/aniseed fruit and a rich multi-pixillated tannin structure. Sourced from mature vineyards planted in the early 1970s, fruit is batch vinified in open and open headed down fermenters and partially barrel fermented in American and French oak of which about 30-50% is new. Maturation takes place over two years. This producer has totally reinvented itself in recent years and become a newly-rising star. The wines are super, and with a new winery, an innovative winemaker, Rolf Binder, and plenty of energy and enthusiasm, Veritas will attract significant interest in the future. Veritas has a joint venture with Noel Young, a small independent Cambridge (UK) wine merchant, called Magpie Estate. The flagship wine called The Malcolm is highly alcoholic, richly concentrated and in need of cellaring. Not produced every vintage and sourced from a vineyard near Marananga, it has created a storm in the US and will polarise critics. However, limited production will not satisfy initial demand, either from the curious or from those who genuinely like the style. Christa Rolf Shiraz Grenache and the retro-labelled Shiraz Mourvedre pressings are also worth seeking out. Rolf Binder has also made the Killibinbin wines from Langhorne Creek, an almost unheard of label in Australia, but the object of Robert Parker Jr.’s enthusiasms. He also makes the JJ Hahn range of wines. Andrew Caillard MW, Langtons