Mike Press celebrates a half-century of winemaking this year. It’s been seven years since I first started avidly tracking his work, and in this time his vines have precisely doubled in age. His shiraz style has grown up with its vines, from the precocious, peppery wines of the early years to a deeper personality of great black cherry and plum fruit presence, epitomised in the spectacular seasons of 2010 and 2012. Lifted violet perfume, succulent blueberries, intense liquorice and pepper are the hallmarks of the new Mike Press style. The biscuity, milk chocolate presence of American oak is prominent, as it always is in Mike’s early release reds, demanding plenty of time for fruit and oak to settle into place. It’s got all the engineering to go the distance: beautifully textured tannins, enlivened by the naturally vibrant acidity of this lofty site. 2012 is the most complete Mike Press Shiraz to date: concentrated, confident, mesmerisingly persistent, and at every moment refined and graceful. $11 direct.