Winemaker Notes
As well as the flavors that are described on the bouquet there are also some sweet toasty new oak characters which are quite prominent at the front of the palate. Then you taste the fruity components and finally all the spicy and other complexing factors. The overwhelming impression you get from this wine is the multitude of different levels it works on, with its scope massive and all encompassing.
You simply have to lay this wine down for many years. The flavors swirl around the mouth and are a joy to behold right now, but it needs at least a decade and will peak soon after that period, but then it will have a long window for optimum drinking, simply because the weight and density of the fruit and other flavoring components. It will probably drink well for a further 10 years.
At the moment if you need to open a bottle to see just how good the wine is, serve only aged piquant cheese, either Reggiano or aged cheddar style. It is too intense and grippy to match up with an entrée at this youthful stage.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A sensational wine, the 1998 Syrah Astralis is a candidate for perfection. It boasts an inky/purple color as well as a big, complex, sweet perfume of charcoal, spring flowers, blackberry liqueur, roasted meats, and damp, forest floor-like notes. Enormously endowed, with good acid, backstrapping tannin levels, fabulous concentration, and a layered mouthfeel, it is beginning to throw off some of its closed, impenetrable personality. A long-termer, it needs another 5-7 years to fully open, and should last for 2-3 decades thereafter.
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.