The Charles Melton The Kirche 2022 is a Barossa Valley Shiraz Cabernet blend with more perfume and lift than heft, built around dark cherry and leafy blackcurrant. Roughly two-thirds Shiraz to one-third Cabernet Sauvignon, it reads as a medium to full-bodied Barossa red with its brightness intact.

Aromatics lead with plum skin, black cherry and cassis, edged by dried bay leaf, violet and a little cedar spice from maturation in a mix of French and American oak, about 30 per cent of it new. The palate carries dark fruit through the middle without weighing things down, picking up olive and iron savouriness as it goes.

Tannins are fine-boned and slightly chalky, the Cabernet component drawing a firm line through the Shiraz's flesh. Acidity is fresh, a mark of the cooler, later-ripening 2022 season in the Barossa Valley, and the finish is long, dry and gently spiced rather than sweet.

Pour it with lamb shoulder cooked slowly with rosemary and anchovy, dry-aged sirloin, a beef and red wine pie, or hard sheep's milk cheese. It has enough tannin to handle char off the barbecue.

Drinking well from 2025, The Kirche 2022 should hold and build savoury complexity through to around 2040 in good cellar conditions. Decant an hour ahead if you are opening a bottle in its youth.