Unearthing Talus

There’s a new member of Mount Langi Ghiran’s family of shiraz wines. Talus, available now, will stand alongside esteemed labels Mast and Langi, creating a trio of Australia’s finest cool-climate shirazes.

The Grampians in Victoria is a cool, mountainous wine region and the Mount Langi Ghiran vineyard – nestled at the base of its namesake – makes the most of this location. Its new shiraz label, Talus, refers to the rock fragments found at the foot of the mountain, which influence the rich, granitic, red-clay soils of the Mount Langi Ghiran site.

The Mount Langi Ghiran brand has long been revered for its spicy, savoury, beautifully elegant shiraz wines. Langi hones in on a few exceptional parcels of fruit from the very best block on the vineyard, while Mast – named after legendary Langi winemaker Trevor Mast, who blazed a trail for cool-climate shiraz in Australia – uses the finest single-vineyard fruit available each vintage. Now, with Talus, the winemaking and viticultural teams are bringing it all together, having mapped out the distinctive offerings across the Mount Langi Ghiran estate over many years, working with them in the winery to create this special wine.

Viticulturist Damien Sheehan speaks to the diversity of material at the Mount Langi Ghiran site – all elements that complement each other in the Talus Shiraz. “It’s the profound influence of the mountain over the vineyard, combined with a shiraz clone of rare provenance, that enables us to achieve medium-bodied, harmonious, fragrant examples across our estate. We have multiple shiraz blocks that cover a range of soil types. The Dam Block produces an intense blueberry character, while the Contour Block delivers more in the red-fruit spectrum, and the Cellar Block creates wines with ethereal, high-tone aromas.”

Winemaker Adam Louder further emphasises the beauty of these different blocks in the Talus Shiraz. “We’re blessed with a great variation of aspects within the Langi property, which contributes to the layers that build iconic, age-worthy wines,” he says. “With the Langi and Mast shirazes being single-block wines, the Talus shiraz is a wine that showcases the best of what the vineyard has to offer.”