Torbreck makes some of the most coveted wines in Australia, arguably the world. RunRig sits firmly in CULT status.

QUINTUPLE 97’S!! Five separate critics, James Suckling, Wine Advocate, Decanter, Vinous, and James Halliday, all landed on the exact same number for this Barossa Shiraz. 97 Across the board! Oh and a Top 100 and Cellar Selection from Wine Enthusiast too! All at a$180 OFF?!?!? A price that brings collectors to their knees!

Australia has its own version of Bordeaux’s 1855 Classification, the one with 1st growths, 2nd growths, and so on down the line. Langton’s runs it, same idea as Sotheby’s or Christie’s running fine wine auctions here, and only 21 wines ever make it into the ‘1st Classified’ tier. It’s a tier, not a ranking, and RunRig is one of the 21, alongside Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace. $119 gets you a bottle from that First Classified group.

And here is a bit more super important trivia: Did you know some of the fruit in this wine comes from old vines planted in 1858? That’s 43 years before Australia even became a federation.

2020 was a hard vintage for Barossa, from loss of crop early in the vintage to the driest year on record for the region. The Barossa yields came in 50 percent below average that season. Great for us! Not a lot of wine though. Only 200 cases were imported. But we know from experience that smaller crops usually lead to concentrated fruit and incredible structure! Hmm…OBVIOUSLY?? Those scores kinda say it all. 👏

Wine Advocate called it “…a magnificent wine…” and James Suckling** echoed that it’s “surreal… old vine uniqueness.” Decanter added “rich and glossy.” Vinous** echoed that it’s “a masterpiece.” Not much else can be said, really.

Giving a bit of context to the scores above. In September of 2025, Wine Advocate published a ‘Retrospective Feature’, tasting and evaluating every RunRig vintage back to the 1995 debut. Not one scored below 95 points. The top scoring wine was from the 2004 vintage. Which is a great testament to the longevity, cellar worthiness of the RunRig.

Now for what’s in the glass….Breathstopping Wowzers..and not quiet Inspector Gadget Wowzer either…We are talking seriously AMPLIFIED DELICIOUSNESS!

Dark plum crushed underfoot, a thread of cracked spice running through the middle, a curl of woodsmoke drifting in the back. On the palate, those old vines are showcased beautifully on a pedestal of full bodied complexity blackberry with bright pops of blueberry. The fine tannins show up in waves, not one big hit, and the finish just keeps going well after you expect it to stop. It’s one of those wines you put in mouth and you just give a nod of approval and shout out YES….or at least we did! By the time we got around to writing tasting notes, we reached the point where we didn’t want to write anything. (life is rough for us spies 😂) We just wanted to enjoy it. It’s in a beautiful window right now.

RunRig itself has earned real comparisons to the best of Côte-Rôtie, the most celebrated address in the Northern Rhône.

The only downer is that we wish we had more. Get what you can, while it lasts! Short vintage, huge scores and we are arguably at the lowest price.

97 Points - James Suckling - ”This is so aromatic with flowers, orange blossom, and black berries with sliced mushrooms and earth. Surreal. Medium to full body, with bark and blackberry character. Some bramble berry, too. Chewy and delicious. Old vine uniqueness. Some grapes come from vines as old as 1858.”

97 Points - Wine Advocate - ”The Torbreck vertical here was the reason for traveling to Barossa during this week, and so it was with great anticipation that I embarked upon a full vertical of the RunRig—the Shiraz-Viognier wine. While there, I was also able to taste the Les Amis and the Hillside Grenaches, in keeping with the broader context of Grenache here. The notes for the Runrig wines speak for themselves; but suffice to say, the winemaking team spans a litany of great producers, starting with Dave Powell, the founder (established 1994), and ending with current winemaker Ian Hongell and his long-serving team of winemakers and viticultural team led by Nigel Blieschke. On-hand the day of this tasting were the current analyses for the wines, and where the numbers were relevant, they have been included in the notes. Suffice to say, the alcohols vary widely over time, as do the expressions of the wines in each vintage. My favorites were the early wines for their charm and their deliciousness, however this is undoubtedly aided and abetted by their age, which had worn down any edges and had rendered them elegant. I have no doubt that this is where the young wines will go in time, but if you have any old bottles of RunRig, I’d advise drinking a bottle—not out of necessity, as they have plenty of time left in them, but because they are lovely wines to drink. The 2020 RunRig leads with wet asphalt and tar, licorice and blackberry. In the mouth, the wine has garden roses and pressed incense, with a core of sweet fruit that is wrapped in grainy, profuse tannin. Closed right now, but it’s a magnificent wine in the scale of the releases tasted here today. Drink 2030-2050.”

97 Points - Decanter - ”Sweet-scented, with blackberry, blackberry blossom, blood plum and surprising juice and animation given the particularly shy-bearing vintage (strong winds at flowering scythed berry and bunch count). A shower of rising, super-fine tannins and baking spice, cedar, nutmeg and vanillin notes speak to classy oak. Rich and glossy, with savoury hints of black olive, liquorice and mulch through the gunmetal finish. Drink 2024-2044.”

97 Points - Vinous - ”Torbreck has been an important modern fixture since David Powell founded the winery almost thirty years ago. It rode atop the wave of powerful Barossa Shiraz into the USA and Europe with Powell at the helm and achieved incredible success. While David Powell is no longer a part of the business, Torbreck remains a leader, potentially in its best form yet under new owner Pete Knight and Chief Winemaker Ian Hongell. Fruit is sourced from across Barossa with strong sub-regional integrity maintained across the range. This beautifully composed 2020 RunRig, a blend of Shiraz with a touch of Viognier, is a masterpiece bringing together dense tannins with immaculate fruit in a package built for the cellar. It boasts impressively concentrated black licorice, black pepper, coal fire, tar and cocoa aromas, with high-quality oak along for the ride. Bone dry and firm. It’s brooding, with flavors held tightly against a wall of tannins before slowly unwinding over a seriously long finish. Give it time, as this is far from ready. Drink 2026-2040.”

97 Points – James Halliday “Torbreck’s shiraz/viognier blend is a Barossa icon wine for its plushness of fruit and sense of latent power. The 2020 version is in fine form with intense blackberry, plum and cherry fruits framed by deep, dark spice, cedar, vanillin oak, star anise, dark chocolate, roasting meats, crème de cassis and earth. Long, ripe granitic tannins cascade through the opulent black fruits and the wine’s architecture suggests that it will have long and distinguished cellaring potential. Super stuff. Drink 2023-2045.”