2010 Torbreck The Laird, Barossa Valley, Australia

(98 Points) Torbreck, founded in 1994 by David Powell, is situated at Marananga on the western ridge of the Barossa. Since that time he has produced some of the world’s finest ‘Rhone varietal’ wines, exclusively from Barossa fruit; this has been acknowledged by the wine press in Europe, America and Australia. The overwhelming majority of his vines are dry-grown, nearly all are 80 – 125 years old and are tended and harvested by hand.  The wines have an extraordinary combination of power, intensity, complexity and great finesse, and bearing in mind the age of the vines and the laughably low yields, no Torbreck wine could ever be accused of being heavy, cloying or over-extracted.