Single-vineyard wines that are at the behest and mercy of the seasons are very exciting to view over time. You understand the essence of the style of the wine and the vineyard DNA, so you sit, patiently waiting for the vintages and seasons that meet your personal proclivities to roll around. The 2018 vintage is one of those for me, as will be the cool 2021 and 2022 seasons. The fruit is sourced from the Gnadenfrei vineyard, which was planted in 1958, in Marananga. The fruit was picked over a variety of picks at optimal ripeness and matured for 36 months in new French oak barriques by Dominique Laurent. Eminently red-fruited in the mouth, this 2018 The Laird is reflective of the 2018 season, in that it is pure, fresh, laden with blood plum, saturated in red berries and framed by savory, exotically spiced black tannins. The oak, while a prominent feature of the wine, supports the fruit at all times and assists in extending the flavor through the finish. Thick in the mouth, yet still fresh, there is a moreish quality to this wine. I love it. (It is likely unnecessary to tell you that the wine is incredibly full-bodied. It is enveloping and huge but wonderful.) Drink date: 2023-2053. Score - 99. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 6, 2023)

Co-fermented with a splash of Viognier, the 2007 Run Rig gives a very deep garnet-purple color and a perfumed nose of warm cassis, crushed blackberries and blueberries over anise, cassia, cloves, tea leaves, rose hips plus earthy hints of black truffles and tilled loam. The full-bodied palate offers rich, ripe but not over-ripe fruit with a taut structure of firm grainy tannins and crisp acid, finishing very long with a gamey / savory character coming through with some cedar and baking spices. Not a style to be broached too early, consider drinking this from 2015 to 2025+. Score - 98. (Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW, robertparker.com, Dec. 2010)

Tasting the RunRig beside the Descendant is always a wise move, in order to gain some contextual understanding of how they are similar and, perhaps more importantly, how they differ. This 2020 RunRig was sourced from six different vineyards across Barossa (in Lyndoch, Rowland Flat, Moppa, Ebenezer, Light Pass and Greenock) and includes a 2% 'dosage' (as winemaker Ian Hongell described it) of Viognier. Matured for 30 months in a combination of new French oak (50%) and second and third fill barrels, the wine rests on its lees for that time. The lower percentage of Viognier here is a seductive and effective thing, adding just enough slick and polish to make this the sybaritic wine that it is, but little enough to allow the grunt, grit and muscle of the Shiraz from all those glorious locations to shine through. Despite the very long time in oak, the wine is balanced and excellent, big in almost every possible way but with an undeniable sense of class and length of flavor. Executed with detail and precision, this wine is clearly defined in its expression of house style. Drink date: 2023-2043. Score - 97+. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 6, 2023)

The fruit for the Les Amis Grenache is from the Slade vineyard, planted in the 1960s. The wine was matured for 24 months in French barriques (40% new). The 2020 Les Amis Grenache is savory, resinous, structural and firm. The core of red fruit remains protected, but it is clear that there is a long future for this wine that is obvious from now, and it will only evolve over time. Clove bud through the finish leaves a cooling, mineral feel in the mouth. This is very big, but very good. It is polished, and the tannins have a gritty chew to them, which is very attractive. Drink date: 2023-2038. Score - 95. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 6, 2023)

The 2020 The Factor is 100% Shiraz and made up of fruit from Gomersal, Krondorf, Marananga and Ebenezer in the Barossa Valley. The wine was matured for 24 months in a combination of new (40%) and seasoned French oak barriques. In the glass, the wine verges on black, and the nose echoes this abyss-like shade. Blackberry, blood plum, black cherry, licorice, campfire embers, cocoa dust, clove, iodine, vanilla pod and red dirt - this is the core of the wine, the beating heart. The tannins, like a skeleton that protects it, are velvety, plush and structural. Like a skeleton, the tannins are entrenched in the fruit, concealed by a skin of flavor. This is a sybaritic, superstar wine that reflects the warm, concentrated, dry, low-yielding vintage from whence it came. This is classic, polished, midnight Torbreck here. Drink date: 2023-2043. Score - 96. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 6, 2023)

The 2022 The Struie is composed of 79% Barossa Valley and 21% Eden Valley fruit. It is impenetrably dense in the glass and aromatic and rich in the mouth. It's totally concentrated with impressive flavor penetration on the palate. This is an epic wine, as usual, and at $55 AUD, it represents sensational premium Barossa Shiraz drinking. It's all velvet and volume, with detail and varietal definition. It could only come from one place on the planet, as it speaks as much to its red dirt origins as it does to the variety, Shiraz. 15% alcohol, sealed under cork and wax. Drink date: 2024-2037. Score - 96. (Erin Larkin, robertparker.com, April 4, 2024)

Made essentially like the Les Amis Grenache, Torbreck's 2017 The Pict Mataro handles the hefty oak complement much better. It kicks off with scents of strawberries and vanilla, then adds cola and dark berries on the full-bodied, creamy-textured palate. From vines planted in 1920, it spent two years in 50% new French barriques but remains fruit-driven and long on the finish. It's a beauty. No 2016 was made (smoke taint). Drink date: 2021-2035. Score - 95. (Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com, Nov. 27, 2019)

Very deep, youthful purple colour, with a broken rock, graphite and slightly tarry aroma, while the palate is very intense and fresh, bright, with lively firmness in the tannins, good intensity and depth of flavour and persistence. There's impressive depth and drive, which powers a very long-lasting aftertaste. A ripping wine. Drinking date: 2022-2037. Score - 95. (Huon Hooke, therealreview.com, Feb. 9, 2022)