A compelling case for two of Taylors Wines’ biggest guns
A limited run of 100 beautiful carry cases, each hand-made from Tasmanian oak, cradles some of the South Australian vineyard’s finest produce.
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For all the care and love that goes into creating a truly spectacular wine, it seems unjust that once the bottle is sealed, from the outside it’s virtually indistinguishable from any old tipple.
For South Australian third-generation winemaking family Taylors, bottling two of their most breathtaking “exceptional parcel release” wines – the 2013 Pioneer Shiraz and 2013 Visionary Cab Sauvignon – into commemorative 1.5-litre magnums wasn’t special enough.
Enter Andrew Bartlett, a South Australian artisanal craftsman and bespoke furniture maker, who was commissioned by Taylors to create a limited run of 100 beautiful carry cases, each hand-made from Tasmanian oak. Bartlett machine-cuts rails of the timber and assembles them into a cylinder precisely sized to snugly hold the magnum. In keeping with the wine inside, the wood selected for cases to accommodate Pioneer Shiraz is of a lighter-coloured grain than that used for the Visionary cab sav.
Both cases are secured by hand-stitched tethers and a shoulder strap made of fine kangaroo leather, while laser-etched metal detail is found inside the lip of the cabinet – brass for the Pioneer, stainless steel for the Visionary. The care taken in the packaging is an indicator not only of the quality of the wine, but also the significance of family heritage.
The Pioneer Shiraz is so-named for Bill Taylor, the current deputy chairman of the family business and a driving force behind its success. The Visionary Cabernet Sauvignon reaches back even further to salute Bill Taylor Snr, the Sydney wine merchant who had the foresight to establish a vineyard in the Clare Valley in 1969.
The two exceptionally limited-edition wines with matching cases are available from Taylors’ online cellar door and duty free shops, for $1000 each.
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