Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Shiraz
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A refined yet savory nose of blackcurrants, wild blackberries, mocha and iodine. The palate is full-bodied with finely integrated tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of mulberry bush, olive tapenade and ferric earth. Very chewy and structured with an underlying freshness. Delicious. Drink or hold.
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Australian Wine Companion
A harmonious, black-cherry-rich shiraz sourced from the Barossan parishes of Marananga, Greenock, Seppeltsfield, Gomersal, Moppa, Lyndoch and Ebenezer. Satsuma plum, the aforementioned cherries, five-spice, bay leaf, licorice, biltong, citrus blossom and earth. I love the pure, savoury fruit core here, like a tube of black cherry and spice, travelling straight and true with fine tannin support and boundless energy. Great drinking.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Woodcutter's Shiraz is perfumed and vital with garden rose, pomegranate, raspberry, blood plum and tapenade. The wine is rich and flavorsome, and it accurately delivers the Barossa message encased in ferruginous tannins and bloody, earthy fruit.
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Wine Spectator
This dense, fragrant red leaps out of the glass with notes of mocha, blueberry preserves, toasted coconut and Saigon cinnamon. Offers espresso, toffee and cigar box elements, along with grace notes of sage, rosemary and pepper, all on a muscular and plump frame. Drink now through 2037.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.