Sapphire Label St John's Shiraz
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5–12 years from the vintage release, allowing the robust tannins and oak integration to soften and reveal complex secondary characters.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted leg of lamb, prime ribeye steak, or rich venison stew.
✨ Technical Specifications
The Wolf Blass Sapphire Label St John's Shiraz is a celebration of South Australia's rich viticultural history, drawing its name from the historic St John's Lutheran Church and the early pioneering families who shaped the Barossa Valley. This expression represents a premium tier of Shiraz, sourced from select vineyards across South Australia's famed regions. It embodies the classic, generous Australian style pioneered by Wolfgang Blass: bold, fruit-forward, and beautifully structured. The wine undergoes careful fermentation followed by maturation in a combination of French and American oak hogsheads, which imparts signature notes of spice, vanilla, and plush, velvety tannins to complement the intense dark berry fruit profile.
🍾 About the Producer
Wolf Blass was established in 1966 by German-born oenologist Wolfgang Blass, who began vinifying small parcels of fruit in South Australia before purchasing the Bilyara property outside Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. Blass pioneered a transformative paradigm in Australian wine, prioritizing accessibility, multi-regional blending, and meticulous oak management over austere single-vineyard orthodoxy. Sourcing across disparate South Australian terroirs—spanning the warm red loam and ironstone of the Barossa Valley to the maritime plains of Langhorne Creek and the high-elevation, cooler, slate-strewn hillsides of Eden Valley and Clare Valley—the winery crafts highly polished, structured wines with supple fruit concentration. Viticulture adheres to modern sustainable guidelines accredited through Sustainable Winegrowing Australia under corporate parent Treasury Wine Estates. Wolf Blass made history by securing the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy four times, anchored by its benchmark Black Label Cabernet-Shiraz, supplemented by the iconic Yellow Label, regional Gold Label, and single-vineyard Sapphire Label releases.
🍇 Grapes
Shiraz
🍷 ABV
14.0% - 14.5%