Wolf Blass Red Label Shiraz Cabernet, 6 x 750ml

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Since then, more colors have been rolled out. The red label, says Blass, was introduced when his company entered the Hong Kong market, and the gold label was created for first-class passengers flying with the Australian flag carrier, Qantas. The system is simple but it works. After graduating in 2000 from the University of Adelaide with first Class honours in Oenology, Marie received the Southcorp wine scholarship. This allowed her to travel and work with the company’s best winemakers across the Australian wine regions of Coonawarra, Barossa, Sunraysia and Great Western. Following these experiences, Marie worked with Lindeman’s for 4 years at both their NSW and Victorian wineries, overseeing white wine production. While it’s not yet ready to drink, the 2008 Platinum Label Shiraz– a single-vineyard wine from the Barossa – shows incredible concentration and depth. Its sheer power and voluptuousness envelop its 15.5 percent alcohol. Abundant mouthcoating tannins combined with the intensity of fruit suggest it has got a long life ahead.

The estate plans to run the ‘Master Blend Classification’ in 2013, this time with wines from the 2009 vintage – an exceptional vintage in Bordeaux. The Aussies will face a much tougher test this time around. Wolfgang Franz Otto Blass was born in Stadtilm, a townin the Thuringia mountains in Germany, in 1934. “1934 was actually a great vintage but politically it was a disaster,” he says. More than 40 years after producing his first Wolf Blass wine, he is still involved in the company today as a“statesman,” but it would be more fitting to call him "chief storyteller."

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He enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science) at Charles Sturt University in 2003, and the following years saw John studying while working in Central Victoria, the Hunter Valley, Yarra Valley and Sonoma County in California. It’s hard to keep up with the number of mergers that Wolf Blass has been through since the early 1990’s. The 1991amalgamation with Mildara was an attempt to take on the might of Southcorp, which had acquired the South Australian Brewing Company and its brands Penfolds, Lindemans and Rosemount. Ironically, on home soil, the wine fared worse, scoring an average of just 89 points, while fellow Australian winery Vasse Felix's Heytesbury cabernet gained an impressive 93, beating all the first growths from 2008.

Just five years later, brewing giant Foster’s acquired Mildara Blass, which was later merged with Beringer Wine Estates to become Beringer Blass. In 2005, Foster’s, acquired Southcorp, bringing Wolf Blass under the same umbrella as South Australian rivals Penfolds et al. The wine arm of Foster’s is now called Treasury Wine Estates. As John got older he went on to manage his parents' vineyard in Queensland, located 800 metres above sea level on the Great Dividing Range. For the next two years John followed the annual cycle of grape vines with keen interest, before deciding it was time to learn how to turn grapes into wine. John's passion for the wine industry was nurtured early on by his parents, through their own interest in grape growing and determination to set up a successful boutique winery.The young German hadn't initially thought about a career in wine. “I always thought I would become an electrician," he says, "but if I had been, knowing my two hands, I would have been dead.”With limited employment options in Germany in the first few years after World War II, his father forced him into an apprenticeship on a wine farm. After three years, he received his certificate of viticulture at the age of just 18 and went on to become the youngest person ever to receive the German Cellar Master Diploma. The Canadian judges awarded the highest score – 92 points out of 100 – to Wolf Blass. Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Château Latour and Opus One came in a respectable joint second, one point behind.