Tahbilk is the oldest continuously operating family-owned winery in Victoria and one of Australia’s most historically significant wine estates, purchased by the Purbrick family in 1925 and now under the stewardship of Alister Purbrick, the fourth generation. The 1860 Vines Shiraz is the estate’s most significant and scarce wine, produced from an extraordinarily small block of Shiraz vines planted in 1860 as part of the original vineyard establishment. Alister Purbrick describes these as the third oldest Shiraz vines in the world and the only surviving 100% original-planting vines from that era, with no rootstocks replacement having taken place.

The 1860 Vines block sits on the sandy alluvial soils of the Goulburn River floodplain in the Nagambie Lakes appellation, where the river’s proximity moderates temperatures and the sandy substrate allows the ancient ungrafted Shiraz vines to drive their roots deep without any phylloxera threat. Production is extraordinarily small, typically around 90 dozen bottles annually from just six barriques, making this one of Australia’s most genuinely rare wines. The vines’ extreme age results in very small, intensely concentrated berries of the classic Hermitage Shiraz clone, and the wine is fermented in small open vats with gentle pump-overs before ageing in French oak.

Tahbilk’s 1860 Vines Shiraz occupies a unique position in the Australian fine wine hierarchy: admired by collectors and wine historians worldwide as a living document of pre-phylloxera viticulture, it commands significant prices at auction and in the cellar door market despite Tahbilk’s relative modesty of profile compared to the Barossa Valley estates that dominate international Shiraz discussion. The 2013 vintage produced wines of excellent structural integrity across Victoria, and the 1860 Vines has long shown a capacity to age beautifully for twenty years or more in correctly cellared conditions.