Geoff Merrill Reserve Shiraz 2004 Wins Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy
The Geoff Merrill Reserve Shiraz from the 2004 vintage has been awarded the 2005 Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for best one-year-old red wine at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show. Based in McLaren Vale, Geoff Merrill Wines has vineyards in three of Australia's viticultural regions, "Pimpala vineyard" McLaren Vale, "Graymoor vineyard" in Coonawarra and the "Pogue" vineyard in the Goulburn Valley.

Produced since 1994 the Reserve Shiraz is from fruit from McLaren Vale vineyards. The aim is to produce a limited production of the best Shiraz of the vintage. The juice is fermented and aged in French and American oak casks for 24 months before selecting superior barrels for blending and bottling. The wine is then bottle aging in the winery cellars prior to release. The current release is the 2000 wine so don’t expect to see bottles of the 2005 for some time to come.