The full, bright and deep colour isn't a false prophet. Ben Glaetzer's skill as a winemaker is writ large across the face of this beautifully shaped and balanced wine. Its purity and line of wild blackberry fruits comes into full focus on the back-palate and finish. An altogether exceptional wine from a very good vintage.

Deep, brilliant violet. Powerful, spice-accented scents of ripe dark berries, candied licorice, violet, mocha and smoky minerals. Juicy and expansive on the palate, offering plush black and blue fruit preserve, fruitcake, vanilla and dark chocolate flavors energized by a suggestion of cracked pepper. Becomes sweeter and deeper with air and finishes smooth, smoky and very long, with harmonious tannins adding shape and gentle grip.

The 2015 Savitar Shiraz is a bit tighter and toastier up front, with cedary and menthol notes that dominate some of the herb and spice notes found in the GAM. The powerful, dark fruit still comes through, like a locomotive of blackberries and plums, ripened to creamy suppleness and extracted to silky richness, with plenty of finesse and length on the finish.

Tense and understated, this grows in a rocky patch of clay soil in the Lopresti Vineyards, at the southern end of McLaren Vale, less than three miles from Port Willunga. It aged in new French-oak barrels for 18 months, but it’s the fruit and earth that drives the wine, yielding notes of wild blueberries, floral black tea, cracked pepper and tar. It’s an elegant shiraz, brisk and cool in its gentleness. Integrated and restrained, this should age with grace.