Peter Lehmann, 2008 Futures Shiraz.

The first wine we ever sold was called ‘The Futures Shiraz’ and we sold it to our friends and family on a ‘pay now and we’ll deliver in two years’ arrangement. It certainly wasn’t some flash marketing gimmick – we didn’t even have a marketing department then. In all honesty, it was simply we needed the cash when we started to ensure we did in fact have a future!.

The 1980 Barossa Valley Futures Shiraz was a magnificent wine when it was first released and when we look back at all the Shiraz we have made over the past quarter century or more, that very first wine we made in 1980 still drinks remarkably well. That’s the incredible thing about Barossa Shiraz – you can enjoy it young when we release it from our cellars, but it’s also capable of extraordinary longevity.

Futures Shiraz is classic Barossa Shiraz. And in keeping with the tradition of Peter Lehmann’s Barossa Shiraz, this is an eminently enjoyable wine when we release it from our cellars, but will faithfully reward long term cellar maturation.

Wine Makers Notes: This wine has a deep rich red colour, a brooding centre and a bright rim. On the nose it shows lifted dark plum, mocha chocolate, and undertones of liquorice. It has a rich and velvety palate with a fruit intensity which comes only from low-yielding Shiraz vines. It has a superb firm tannin structure framing the fruit, ensuring a long life in the bottle.

Vintage:The vintage began early and produced a small, low yielding crop for the major red varieties. The wines are supple with good definition and early approachability.

Vineyards:Selected low yielding, mature Barossa Shiraz vineyards.

Wine Making:Fermented & macerated on skins for up to 2 weeks, with some partial barrel fermentation. Following processing & clarification, the wine was matured for 15 months in French oak hogsheads prior to bottling.