THE STANDISH WINE CO

Pruning is Dan Standish’s favourite part of the winemaking cycle. Rigorous control of bud numbers and yields sets the tone for this Barossa Shiraz specialist, whose ‘off-cuts’ produce Fortnum & Mason’s Barossa Valley Shiraz (£15.50).

With exacting standards for his The Standish Wine Co label, he never uses more than 30% of the barrels, ‘guaranteeing that only the best of the best fruit ends up in the bottle’. So he must have been particularly frustrated that his average yields were down by 55% in 2019 and 70% in 2020. With minuscule allocations in the pipeline, it’s a good time to take a look at Standish’s 2017 and 2018 releases.

Preferring to court growers, not the press (whom Standish has ‘pretty much spent the last 20 years avoiding’), information about The