Winemaker Notes
Our flagship cuvee, the 2004 Astralis Syrah, highlights the quality of the fruit that is produced from eighty-six year old vines, planted on clay and ironstone. The wine is produced from a small parcel in our Blewitt Springs vineyard. Considered one of "Australia's greatest Syrah" by Robert Parker, this wine offers aromas of cassis and countless sweet red and black fruits. On the palate it is full of blueberries, plum, roasted meat, truffles, violet and vanilla flavors underscored by subtle tones of pepper and cedary oak finishing with plenty of flavor and rousing intensity.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of Australia’s most prodigious Syrahs, Clarendon Hills’ 2004 Syrah Astralis is fashioned from vines planted in 1920, and spends time in 100% new French oak from the cooper, Cadus. It boasts off the charts intensity as well as an opaque purple color, and notes of spring flowers, blueberries, blackberries, roasted coffee beans, pepper, smoke, and a hint of sweet toasty oak. This full-bodied, rich, intense, backward Syrah needs 2-3+ hours in the decanter if one is going to approach it at this point in its life. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2040+.
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Wine Enthusiast
The 2004 is a stunner, yielding up scents of flowers and spice, framed by hints of vanillin oak. It's dense and amply textured in the mouth, packed with wonderfully expressive blackberry and blueberry fruit. A tour de force of Australian winemaking.
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Wine Spectator
Deep, dense and brooding. A smoky, thick Shiraz that feels open and welcoming as the finish expands and persists. Cherry, chocolate and espresso notes mingle harmoniously and hint at loamy earth as the finish sails on and on. Best from 2010 through 2020. 500 cases imported.
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James Suckling
Good yields and a more moderate vintage. This has aged well and carries a meaty and earthy edge, as well as dried mushroom, forest wood and leaves. Some cocoa and dark cherry, too. The palate has a super plush feel with fleshy, ripe blackberry fruit framed in spicy oak. Smooth, open finish. Drink or hold.
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.