Langton’s Selections ^3Tahbilk 1860 Vines Shiraz, Tahbilk Eric Stevens Purbrick (1933 Vines Reserve Shiraz), Tahbilk Eric Stevens Purbrick Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Near Nagambie lies Tabilk Tabilk (‘place of many waterholes’), an important early river crossing for travellers. Tahbilk (with an ‘h’), known until recently as Chateau Tahbilk, is Victoria’s oldest family-owned winery, celebrating almost 140 years of continuous wine production. It has played a hugely important role in the development of the modern Australian wine trade. For over 75 years it has been a vini-cultural centre of wine; a meeting point of some of Australia’s most influential wine intelligentsia. A pagoda style weatherboard tower commands the winery complex, which dates back to this time. The fabulous new cellar was excavated in 1875. This place reeks of history. Indeed a National Trust plaque near the cellar door recognises this property as being "among highly significant examples of early rural architecture worthy of preservation". The Purbrick Family bought the property in 1925. Alister Purbrick is a third generation winemaker who has modernised Tahbilk without abandoning the past. Tahbilk produces a wide range of wines and is particularly known for its high-standard Shirazes and Cabernet Sauvignons. 1860s vines Shiraz derives from a small patch of half hectare ungrafted pre-Phylloxera, original Estate planted vines and is amongst some of the oldest direct producing Shiraz vines in the world. The wine is both a curio and an experience. The fruit is handpicked and fermented in century old oak vats before maturation in French oak for 18 months prior to bottling. The wine is further aged in bottle for four years "bottle-aging" before release making it 6 years after vintage before it reaches market. The label design harks back to an original Tahbilk wine label used during the 1870s although the 1979 vintage was the first of this release. Produced in miniscule quantities, this wine is made very much in the traditional fashion. The term ‘old vines’ often suggests deeply concentrated wines, but this style is more elegant with plummy/chocolaty/berry fruit flavours and looseknit gravelly tannin structures. The Reserve type wines are now re-badged Eric Stevens Purbrick Shiraz from 1933 vines and Eric Stevens Purbrick Cabernet Sauvignon are both muscular but resonating styles with plenty of cellaring future. The latter is a continuum of Tahbilk’s Special Bin Cabernet Sauvignon of which the first release was in 1952. These early releases sometimes appear on the market. Tahbilk is also Australia’s pioneering producer of Marsanne. The occasionally released 1927 Vines Marsanne is a leaner, tighter style to allow further bottle development. Tahbilk is a Victorian icon – in the truest sense of the world. Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's