Why it matters
The producer
McPherson Wines is an independent, family-owned winery established in 1968, with its listed home in Nagambie Lakes, Victoria. Australian Wine Companion records Jo Nash as winemaker, Alistair Purbrick of Tahbilk as co-owner, and 262 hectares of vineyards. The bottle story is broader than a single estate: McPherson hand-selects Central Victorian grapes and works with growers and makers, so a label can carry the McPherson name while bringing a particular regional parcel into focus.
That structure is most vivid in Don't Tell Gary Shiraz. Nash’s winemaking links a named Shiraz parcel, French-oak maturation and a wine whose title comes from a real cellar decision. It is a useful starting point for a producer whose range moves between a Nagambie Lakes base, regional sourcing and individual bottlings with their own origins.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Nagambie Lakes is McPherson’s listed Victorian address, while Central Victoria supplies the wider frame for its grape selection. The range therefore does not ask one place to speak for every bottle. Grampians Shiraz appears on independently documented Don't Tell Gary releases, while the Swedish-market Don't Tell Gary is listed from the Strathbogie Ranges; those regional names belong to their respective bottlings rather than to one interchangeable house site.
For Shiraz, that distinction matters on the label and in the glass. A bottle named for the Grampians or Strathbogie Ranges carries a more specific origin than a broad Central Victorian sourcing statement, while McPherson’s grower network lets the winery make wine from fruit beyond its Nagambie Lakes home.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
McPherson works with a network of growers and makers, alongside its recorded vineyard holdings, so vineyard work begins with selecting fruit across Central Victoria rather than presenting every wine as a one-vineyard estate bottling. Hand selection and small-batch winemaking give the cellar smaller lots to handle separately, allowing a regional Shiraz parcel to remain a named bottle instead of disappearing into a larger blend.
For Don't Tell Gary, the documented cellar choice is concrete: Shiraz was matured in French oak for a year, with minimal intervention described in its making. Oak contributes spice, toast and a rounder texture when it meets Shiraz fruit; time in barrel also lets tannin settle into the wine’s body. The result is a red built for flavour and grip rather than a neutral expression of grape alone.
Wines to know
The range in view
Shiraz is the range’s clearest red thread. Don't Tell Gary is the site-specific, oak-aged expression: a Shiraz linked to the Grampians on the 2022 release and to the Strathbogie Ranges on the Swedish-market bottle. Its French-oak year places dark fruit, spice, body and tannin at the centre of the wine’s architecture, while the named origin keeps the label more specific than a general South Eastern Australian red.
McPherson also has Chardonnay and Shiraz wines in the Swedish market under the main McPherson name. The Chardonnay supplies a white-wine counterpoint to the red range, while the separate Shiraz offers another route into the grape without borrowing Don't Tell Gary’s Grampians or Strathbogie Ranges claim. Together, those bottles show a producer working across grape, region and style rather than repeating one cuvée under several labels.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Don't Tell Gary Shiraz, choosing the current release and reading its stated region on the label. It is Shiraz with a documented parcel story, a year in French oak and a direct connection to Jo Nash’s cellar work. Expect dark fruit, spice, medium-to-full body, oak-derived texture and tannin through the finish. The bottle brings together McPherson’s regional fruit selection, small-batch approach and one unusually candid name.