2017 Bests Thomson Family Great Western Shiraz

Highly Rated
The iconic old Shiraz vines of Best's distilled into a bottle. This is the pinnacle of the Best's range and extremely limited.

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Sale price$250.00
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Description

The Best's Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz is the apex wine of this famous winery.

The 15 rows of ancient vines that contribute to this wine were planted in 1868 by founder and Victorian wine pioneer, Henry Best. The wine is only released in the finest vintages, having been made only fourteen times in the last two decades.

It receives the royal treatment from winemaker Justin Purser and co. The fruit is hand picked and ferment in small batches then married to the finest oak. The intent is to create a wine that tells the tale of these old stalwart vines. Something that will age gracefully for decades to come.

Received a recent 99 point review from James Halliday and is available in only minuscule amounts. Act quickly to secure your own allocation.

The Thomson Centenary Shiraz was created in 1993, to celebrate the centenary of the Thomson family settling in the area of Great Western. This special single vineyard wine was made from the 15 rows of the original 1868 Shiraz vines, planted by Henry Best, and once referred to as ‘Hermitage’ in Henry’s daily journal.

Today, this wine is only made in the very best vintage years and is called Thomson Family Shiraz.

These gnarled old vines in the oldest Shiraz vineyard at Best’s Concongella Vineyard grow in soils that range from hard-setting silt over clay to friable clay loams. In great vintages, all of this fruit goes into the Thomson Family Shiraz. If the fruit doesn’t make the grade, we use it selectively in Bin No. 0.

99 Points - "Predominantly from the 1868 plantings, with lesser amounts from 1996 and '70, hand-picked and sorted, 50% crushed, 45% whole berry, 5% whole bunch. You'd stand up for royalty, and that's this wine. To use the spit bucket is lese majeste. Just savour it, drop by drop, as it magically finds its way unbidden down your throat. It's got the full rainbow of cool-grown shiraz flavours, a conjunction with a year made for it by Dionysis, and, glory be, comes with a screwcap." - James Halliday (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 Points - "Deep purple/red, youthful and bright, the bouquet clean and fresh and loaded with dark-cherry and blackberry aromas, the palate full-bodied, round and soft-textured. The tannins are ample but very fine and seamless, belying its obvious long-term ageing potential. Rich as plush and as silk. Power delivered with elegance. Subtle hints of spice. It’s still very young and undeveloped, and promises much in the future. Drink from 2022- 2042." - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)

Best's Great Western

Best's Great Western is one of the oldest family-owned wineries in the country.

Their iconic Nursery Block is home to some of the oldest clonal material for particular varieties that can be found anywhere in the world. Established in the late 1860s, this precious vineyard is envied by much of the wine growing world.

Their wines are consistently excellent: the Shiraz dark and powerful, the Rieslings full flavoured and impeccably balanced, and the rare releases of Old Vine Meunier and Thomson Family Shiraz are some of the most collectable red wines in the country.

The Thomson family, and the Best family before them, have given us one of the true treasures of the Australian wine scene.

Viv and Ben Thomson Best's Great Western

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Delivery is free on orders of $150 or more!

For orders under this amount, delivery is calculated at checkout based on your postcode. You can order in any quantity or combination of wines you like. Straight dozens are not required.

We will dispatch your order the same or next business day.

Estimated delivery transit time varies depending on your location. Please review this page for specific estimates.

Sydney (Our Vans): If no one is home and there are no special delivery instructions our driver will try to call for instructions. If the driver believes there is a safe space to leave your wine they will do so if not, they will return the item to us and hold your order until further instruction from you. 

Melbourne (Anonymous Wine Freight): If no one is home and there are no special delivery instructions, the courier will try to call for instructions. If the driver believes there is a safe space to leave your wine they will do so. if not, they will return the item to their dispatch centre and hold until further instruction from you.

Australia Post: Australia Post will leave the parcel if they have been given authority to leave and it is deemed safe to do so. To give your Authority to Leave, please enter this in the 'SPECIAL REQUEST' box at checkout.

Ordering

We want Different Drop customers to always be getting the best price. If you see a lower price elsewhere, just get in touch and we will sort it out for you. We handle all our price-matching on a case by case basis.

Some things to keep in mind: 

  • Retrospective price-matching is available for 30 days after you have purchased from us.
  • The price match cannot be used in conjunction with a coupon or one-off deal we are offering. The idea is for you to get the best price in the market so if that is already achieved through a coupon then we won't price match on top of that.
  • We don't price match clearance or fire sales.
  • We’ll match the listed price as long as it is a legitimate offer and the competing store is actually able to fulfil the order (they have stock or more stock is en route). Essentially we won't price match cheeky vendors listing wines they have no hope of actually getting for you...
  • It must be a publicly listed price. We won't match a price that has been achieved through a coupon/cash-back arrangement, or through a non-advertised offer over the phone or otherwise.  
  • It is limited to a reasonable retail quantity.

We'll treat each price match request on its merit and reserve the right to refuse where we deem fit. For example, particularly rare wines, from non-trust-worthy vendors, in circumstances we deem illegitimate or if we feel our policy is being unfairly taken advantage of.

At the end of the day, we'll look after you and use common sense to ensure you're getting the best price, please just don't take the p%$$!

No, feel free to mix it up! There is no minimum requirement. You can order wines in any quantity or combination, 1 or 50+ bottles.

We stock three different sized gift boxes (single, three bottle and six), all are available for purchase for a flat rate of $8. They look great and make an awesome impression.

To add a gift box to your order, simply add at checkout. The special requests box is your friend, please give us as many details of what you are looking for and we will try our best, or get in contact to discuss it with you. 

If you want to bulk order gifts or if you have any trouble please email hello@differentdrop.com or call and we can try and help.

 

If you can't add more wine to your cart it means we are low on stock of that wine. For example, if you are only able to 3 bottles and no more that means we only have 3 bottles left of that wine. If it's a must have, please contact us and we may be able to order more in for you.

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