Winemaker Notes
Dark fruits, dark plum, and lovely fennel seed notes on the nose. The sip reveals rich balsamic-glazed beets and damson plum, with white pepper in layers of complexity. Superb balance. Slaty, persistent, mineral-like tannins bring a generous framework for decades of cellaring. The wine’s considerable structure and depth will ensure that the fruit characters will develop over time revealing more complexity and providing immense interest.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Quite expressive and exotic, with red plums, blackberries and iodine, as well as dried herbs and nori, quite fragrant spices and currants. The palate has a sleek, dense and long feel, with impressive fruit intensity, delivered in such contained and impressively composed style. This has such length and intensity with a silky texture. Old vines underpin the style here. Drink over the next decade or more.
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Australian Wine Companion
Once the top of the tree. Today, usurped by a slew of single-vineyard offerings, at least in terms of price. Crushed black rock, licorice straps, clove and boysenberry. The tannins, more resolved than in past experiences. Fresher and less forced, too. Bravo! Forceful, to be sure. This is a wine with a future, for those who like warm-climate, powerful Australian shiraz.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich, heady aromas of mint, mocha, ground pepper, plum and black currant preserves lead to an equally powerful, dense palate that’s wound in muscular, dusty tannins. This is a massive wine now, but everything is in place for it to go the distance—a decade, at least.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, with toothsome tannins that add a firm background to tangy blackberry and blueberry flavors, with notes of crushed rock and fresh earth, spices, tobacco and toasted cedar. Firming finish, where strong laurel bay leaf and sage accents linger.
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.