Best's Great Western Bin 0 Shiraz 2015

Best's Wines is one of Australia's oldest family-owned wineries, with a history dating back more than 150 years. They produce three shiraz, the flagship Best's Thomson Family Shiraz, the iconic Best's Bin 0 Shiraz and the cornerstone Best's Bin 1 Shiraz. Best's Bin 0 Shiraz is sourced from four low-yielding Concongella Shiraz blocks established in 1966, 1970, 1992 and 1994.

"This shiraz is a class act. Cherried, plummy, minty, flushed with acidity, mid-weight and yet ultimately complex. It's velvety, it tastes of chicory, kirsch and peppercorn, it is influenced by sweet, cedary, toasty oak and it's firm with fine-grained tannin. It is ultra-young and has an ultra-long future ahead."  Campbell Mattinson

Expert reviews

"Deep colour; the bouquet immediately wrests attention to its profound black fruits that follow hot on its heels in the full-bodied palate. Has remarkable power and intensity to the array of black fruits, licorice, spice and pepper flavours bound by French oak. Intensity is the keyword. Drink by: 2035."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 points

"Subtle spices, red and dark fruits, intense and stylish, lovely balance, soft but ample tannins and good length. An elegant vintage, with a big future ahead of it. Drink: 2017-2040."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 95 points

"One of the most attractive things about the classical Best's Great Western red wine style is the texture. That glossy, plum essence roundness seems to come without the cost of heat or excess. It's just a full, enveloping and charming style. This '15 is a classical Best's Great Western red too. 

You'd almost call that fruit molten, such is the perfect flow in this iteration. Like a wave of spiced purple berry compote washing over your palate. The oak folds into that fruit too, adding a vague vanilla bean highlight, but largely just contributing more textural layers. Critically, whilst it's ripe (and a warm year wine), it feels sunny, not cooked – i.e. plums, not prunes – and it's a quintessentially mid-weight wine. The tannins, too, are almost elegant, the acid correct, the finish just a little warm but not hot. 

Ultimately this is classic wine. You'd want to wait an extra year, as it still doesn't feel like it's giving up all its goodies yet (hence the plus sign). Beyond next year? I have no doubt this will be a 30 year wine. Best drinking: 2019-2039. Would I buy it? I really would. Lovely."  Andrew Graham, Australian Wine Review – 94+ points 

"I saw reference to "nori seaweed” as a descriptor for this wine in the accompanying press release. I was doubtful. Then I tasted it. You'll never guess what happened next. Click here for clickbait of the customarily disappointing kind. The wine did indeed reference nori seaweed. And it was indeed part of its unique, dare-I-say-it tantalising appeal. This shiraz is a class act. Cherried, plummy, minty, flushed with acidity, mid-weight and yet ultimately complex. It's velvety, it tastes of chicory, kirsch and peppercorn, it is influenced by sweet, cedary, toasty oak and it's firm with fine-grained tannin. It is ultra-young and has an ultra-long future ahead. Drink: 2021-2031+."  Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 94 points

The history of bin 0 

"The evolution of Bin No 0 began more than 150 years ago when Henry Best planted vines at the Concongella Vineyard in 1868. We believe that Henry adopted from the start the style of labelling of the day. We started to move away from the use of European descriptors in the 1980s. However, our first Bin 0 Shiraz didn't appear until 1990.

So what makes this wine so special? It's always been produced from our oldest vines. The fruit is selected from the lower yielding blocks of the historic Concongella vineyard at Great Western. This vineyard is home to 19th- and 20th-century Shiraz plantings, which result in low-yielding, intensely flavoured fruit. We hand select, sort and ferment the fruit in small batches followed by intense barrel selection.

Best's No. 0 is an Australian classic with an impressive pedigree of nearly 150 vintages. It is powerful yet elegant, complex yet harmonious, with many years of great vintages ahead of it yet. Bin 0 has been awarded "Excellent” by Andrew Caillard MW within the esteemed Langton's Classification.

When Viv Thomson started making Bin 0 decades ago, it was a different story to how the winery is run these days. His work in the cellar was done by candlelight, with limited electricity, no fermentation control, no new oak and horses carrying out lots of the back-breaking work in the vineyard."  Best's Wines

About the winery

The story 

The story of Best's begins in 1866 when Henry Best purchases 30ha of land in the small town of Great Western. It was a property named Concongella. Henry planted the first vines in 1868. Best's original vineyards are among the oldest and rarest pre-phylloxera plantings in the world. The Nursery Block contains 39 varieties and that are thought to be sourced from the Busby collection, Australia's first vines. A number of the vines planted in the Nursery Block have defied identification and are thought to exist nowhere else in the world. 

In the early 20^th century, Henry Best presents his wines throughout Europe and was awarded gold medals in Paris, Bordeaux, Brussels and London. In 1913 Henry Best dies at age 81 and is buried in the Great Western cemetery. 

In 1920 the Thompson Family purchases the Concongella Vineyard from the Best family. The Thompson Family had originally settled in Great Western in 1893 and purchased a winery at Rhymney (13km south of Henry Best). 

In 1961 Viv Thomson joins his family for his first vintage. In 1967 Best's Old Vine Pinot Meunier was first produced. In 1975 Viv decided to appoint the first external winemaker, Trevor Mast. Best's had grown significantly and Viv was needed to manage the company and develop relationships further afield.  

The 1992 vintage of the flagship Thomson Family Shiraz is first released in 1993 to commemorate 100 years since the Thomson family settled in Great Western. In 2000 Best's cornerstone wine, Bin No. 1 Shiraz is made for the first time. 

In 2008 Viv Thomson hands over the reins of the company to son Ben. In 2020 the Thomson Family celebrates 100 years as custodians of Best's Wines. 

Notable Awards 

2011 Best's Bin 1 Shiraz wins the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the 2012 Royal Melbourne Wine Show.

2014 Best's Thomson Family Shiraz wins the 2017 Halliday Wine of the Year.

Langton's classifies Best's Thomson Family Shiraz as 'Exceptional' and Best's Bin 0 Shiraz as 'Outstanding' in 2018

Best's awarded Best Value Winery of the Year in James Halliday's 2021 Wine Companion.

2021 Foudre Ferment Riesling wins the 2023 Halliday Wine of the Year.