Cellar notes #40: A family affair

The Clare Valley, north of Adelaide in South Australia, is home to distinctively rich and fruity shirazes from small, independent growers. One of the best known is Jim Barry, a historic local family company, with nearly 250 hectares of vineyards, noted for its iconic shiraz, The Armagh.

Even at the lower end, the quality of Jim Barry wines is exceptional. The 2001 Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Shiraz (£8.99-£9.30, from selected Safeway, and Bennetts, 01386 840392), is food-friendly, powerful, opulent and crammed with mulberry and cranberry characters whose summer-pudding acidity is the perfect foil for the fruit ripeness.

Further up the scale, the 2000 Jim Barry The McRae Wood Clare Valley Shiraz is an intensely aromatic red with notes of blackberry and blackcurrant tinged with liquorice spice and rosemary. This warming classic packs a powerful but not overwhelming punch thanks to its purity of fruit concentration (£14.99-£15.65, Bennetts; Handford, 020-7221 9614; Tanners, 01743 234455; Christopher Piper, 01404 814139).

Rhône it ain't and neither is the jewel in the Jim Barry crown, The Armagh. The 2000 Armagh is a big, rich wine but not so oaky or monstrous as to be unapproachable, wearing its 15 per cent alcohol lightly (£39.90-£48, Tanners, Handford, Christopher Piper, Bennetts). Like a bowl of sweet ripe plums, blackberries and mulberries, its succulent fruit is intense, poised and enticingly drinkable even though you know you should be keeping your hands off, to allow it to evolve over the coming decade.