Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine has been a perennial favorite, but it does offer a very Rhône-inspired set of characteristics, being meaty and somewhat feral in aroma. There are green peppercorn scents as well, and the flavors are intensely savory, spicy and herbal, with a foundation of plum and blackberry fruit.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Starts off with a blast of dark berry and spice, then expands into nuances of wet earth, crushed stone and coffee, the fruit rejoining the chorus on the finish. Medium-weight, with a sense of refinement underneath. Best from 2012 through 2018.
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.”
Nestled into the tip of its southeastern coastline, Victoria is Australia’s smallest mainland state, second most populous and third largest wine producer. Victoria includes the cool regions of Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, made famous mainly by impressive Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The more inland Heathcote and Bendigo lead the way for complex and textured, full-bodied reds. Rutherglen’s fortified wines compete among the best on the planet.