91 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2009 The Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier contains 6% co-fermented Viognier. It presents a deep garnet-purple color and notes of blackberry and blueberry preserves with some raisins, violets, peach blossoms and baking spices. Rich, ripe, and nicely balanced, it’s full bodied with firm grainy tannins, crisp acid and a long finish. Drink it now to 2021+. The d’Arenberg winery is 100 years old with a fourth generation Osbourne in charge today of this now considerable operation. Graduated from Roseworthy College in 1983, Chester was expected by his father to change things when he took over the family business. Instead he went back to tradition rather than modernizing. In the d’Arenberg vineyards there is no cultivating, fertilizing or herbicides used – Chester compares these artificial means to growing plants hydroponically. Looking to continually improve the root systems of his vines, he rarely irrigates. Average yields are 1.7 tons per acre. “2011 was actually a great year for us,” Chester informed me. “We didn’t have any problems with rot.”