Description
5 Red Star Rated Winery – Australian Wine Companion
Top 100 Wineries 2023, Halliday Australian Wine Companion “Quiet achievers are often the keepers, and the wines of Collector Wines are exactly that. Canberra’s Collector Wines never seems to make a great deal of fuss and yet every year, in the glass, it’s showtime, with gorgeously funky chardonnay and stellar cool-climate shiraz as its flagbearers ..” Campbell Mattinson.
Collector Wines are a boutique wine producer. Grapes are grown on the characteristic lean pink granites and reddish shale loams of the Canberra District and Tumbarumba. The wines are hand-made for balance, character and depth of flavour.
Alex McKay started Collector Wines in 2005 with just a handful of cool climate shiraz and a determination to make elegant, long-lived wines. Fast forward to today, and they are known for wines that sing with a purity of regional expression and varietal definition.
About this wine from the winemaker: “A blend of Sangiovese (96%) and Malvasia Nera (4%). The 2023/24 growing season presented good conditions for vine health in the Canberra District. A moist Spring and Summer and temperate conditions in late summer allowed the grapes to ripen in stress-free conditions, producing Sangiovese with great generosity and typicity A number of clones of Sangiovese are grown on a range of vineyards across both granite and shaley soil near Murrumbateman.
“The grapes were hand-harvested at around 13 Baumé. Fermentation with natural yeast took place in open fermenters which were worked by hand to extract flavour and tannin. Parcels went through a natural malolactic fermentation and ageing in a mix of new (10%) and seasoned Allier and Tronçais oak. Blending and bottling took place in November 2025.
“Spiced redcurrant, mulberry and tobacco yield to a rich palate framed by cherries, hints of tar and firm savoury tannins.”
95 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Australian Wine Companion “Easy to gauge a wine’s quality and deliciousness by the fact I kept sipping this thinking, ‘gosh I like it’. The glass kept emptying before sentences were written here! Point is, this is drinking brilliantly now. A vibrant red hue with heady aromas of wood smoke (peaty almost), new leather and warm earth. There’s a core of tangy, juicy cherry flavour infused with woodsy spices and fleshy ripe plums with a dusting of cocoa. The raw-silk tannins add texture across the mid-weighted palate. The juicy acidity (and there’s plenty of it) holds all the parts together, leaving an excellent refreshment factor.”
RRP $39 Our Special Price $31.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine.
