Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz leads with a succulent nose that is redolent with raspberry pip and mulberry, sarsaparilla and pomegranate. It is pure, fine and light, with fresh red fruit on the palate as well. Perhaps it doesn't have the length and carry of some of the other vintages, but having said that, it isn't like it is descending into maturity at this point either. This is shorter and finer, but it isn't fragmenting or developing.
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Wine & Spirits
Youthfully blunt, this vintage of Graveyard doesn’t show much as a young wine. It’s balanced, tightly wound between perfumed cherry flavors and the cool, earthen scent of a cave. Built to cellar five years or more.
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.”
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.