Adam Foster released his first shiraz two decades ago. It was a mere 100 cases of wine, made from grapes he’d bought from a vineyard in the central Victorian region of Heathcote, an area synonymous with the shiraz grape.

Foster started out as a chef, but switched to winemaking in 2002 after becoming obsessed with the bottles he tasted in the restaurants where he worked. As well as setting up his own wine label, Syrahmi, he also worked in wineries around Australia and in France’s northern Rhône Valley, where shiraz – syrah – flourishes in the granite soils of Côte-Rôtie and Saint-Joseph. Self-taught, he was keen to learn as much as he could about winemaking in general and the shiraz grape in particular.