I was privileged to have the opportunity to showcase trophy winners of my Great Australian Red competition in London earlier this year, and one of the finest wines in the room was the 1990 vintage of The Reserve. The confident longevity of the greatest cabernet shiraz blends is perhaps uncontested in Australian wine. In 2004, The Reserve was sourced entirely from the Barossa Valley and matured in 50% new oak, half French and half American. This will be an exceedingly long-lived wine, and even at almost a decade of age it takes quite some time and vigorous swirling action to coax its violet perfume and blackcurrant and capsicum fruit out from under its shroud of cedary, dusty, dark chocolate oak. Crunchy structure, lively, enduring tannins and amazing length promise tremendous longevity. $110 at Cracka and Gray’s Online.