Winemaker Notes
Blend: 94% Shiraz, 6% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Black and red-licorice aromas with hints of graphite and dark berries. Crushed stone. Full-bodied, layered and beautiful. Very stylish and intense.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
D'Arenberg's 2015 The Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier reveals the Viognier component on the nose, offering up hints of apricot alongside the main aromas of black olives and blueberries. Over time, those stone-fruit notes will fade, so if that's your jam, catch this wine over the next year or so. If you prefer a more conventional Shiraz profile, hold the wine for 3-4 years. It's certainly got the stuffing for that and more, offering a medium to full-bodied palate, a rich, almost creamy mouthfeel packed with ripe tannins and a lingering finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Chester Osborn’s tribute to the kookaburra, a black bird with a white stripe, the Laughing Magpie blends some white grapes (viognier) in the fermenter with shiraz. That viognier points up the spicy perfume as well as the tannic weight of the shiraz, a bloody, meaty, iron-bound combination that’s rich and savory. Cellar it.
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.