Wild Duck Creek Reserve Shiraz 2000

Wild Duck Creek Winery could be considered the Grateful Palate’s first true “cult” winery. Other producers had their adherents but Wild Duck Creek seems to cast an almost-religious cloak of awe over its fans. Even before Duck Muck focused the eyes of collectors worldwide on David ‘Duck’ Anderson, we’ve had clients who waited patiently for Wild Duck Creek (and only Wild Duck Creek) from us vintage after vintage.

Mr. Anderson is a self-taught winemaker (well, almost self-taught: he did look up information on pH levels in a winemaking book once) yet consistently produces more inspired wine than any gaggle of enology school graduates could ever hope to make. He is completely hands-on from the planting of his vineyards all the way through bottling the finished wine. He even loads up his van and delivers the wines personally to his mailing list clients all over Australia! Visiting David is like visiting a mad scientist. He’s got maverick single barrels, experimental barrels, wines made for friends, odds and ends all over the place. Everything is made in the inimitable Duck style. There’s a dust-covered chemistry set in the corner that David points to and laughs at as he passes by. He makes wine by intuition rather than by formula.

The Wild Duck Creek wines reflect the personality of their maker: wild, unique, intriguing, very complex, yet immediately likeable. It’s the winemakers such as David Anderson who are the heart and soul of the Grateful Palate.