Vintage stigma, be damned. Kym Teusner cleverly tweaked the Albert recipe in the cool, wet 2011 season, retaining the core of seventy-year old Ebenezer and fifty-year-old Williamstown shiraz vines and supplementing these with western Barossa fruit and, importantly, the Marananga block usually destined for his Righteous flagship. The result is one of the standout reds of the year, a wine of compact, tight, refined density of black plum skin fruit and gorgeous finesse of finely textured tannins. It retains a violet fragrance, very rare in this vintage. An intricately crafted shiraz of excellent length and polished confidence. $40 at Cracka.