Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Shiraz
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
There is a lot to like here with a distinctly contemporary take on a classic Barossa style that centres around fruit purity and pure drinkability. Super-ripe black cherry, blackberry and satsuma plum fruits, an array of spice, purple florals, licorice and kirsch tones, superfine sandy tannins and bright cadence, despite the opulence of the fruit. Pretty impressive stuff at this pricepoint.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz is concentrated and very ripe in the mouth, with goji, dried cherry, kirsch, mulberry and prunes through the finish. The wine is charry and lean in its way, with an obvious whole-bunch portion of the wine standing above the rest of the flavors and textures here. It matured in a combination of French and American oak for 18 months. 14.5% alcohol.
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.