Ian Little started his winemaking journey over 40 years ago at Chateau Reynella in McLaren Vale. This is where he learnt the art of fortified wines and where his passion for making these styles of wine began.

This is a one-off extremely limited release made possible only by the hot, dry conditions of the 2018 vintage. Super ripe Shiraz fortified with premium brandy spirit and aged in oak barriques for 6 years.

In 2018 we experienced a series of extreme heat days with temperatures up to 45 degrees, fortunately this occurred later in mid-February when all of the whites and most reds had already been harvested. We decided to leave a small parcel of Shiraz out in the heat, allowing it to ripen to over 16.5 baume. The fruit had incredible intensity with flavours of dark jubes and blackberry jam, perfect for our first vintage port (VP). After partial fermentation the wine was fortified with premium brandy spirit and aged in oak barriques for 6 years.

Traditionally, vintage ports are matured for 2-3 years in oak before aging in bottle. However Ian decided to create a late-bottled vintage style to give the brandy spirit a further 4 years to incorporate with the base wine in older French oak prior to bottling. 

This is a luscious, decadent wine with intense flavours of liquorice and spice and is ready for immediate indulgence but will cellar for a further 5 years in the right conditions. 

375mL bottle