Winemaker Notes
The wine is then matured in these oak hogsheads for 24 months.Only the most outstanding barrels are chosen for this blend.
This wine has big full flavours of plum and red berry fruit and also shows a sweet fruit mid palate concentration.The oak characters give the fruit support and the wine finishes with big, but soft drying tannin.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2002 Shiraz Oscar Semmler was aged 24 months in new and 1-year-old French oak hogsheads. It possesses tremendous opulence, concentration, and purity as well as a gorgeous texture and loads of fruit, glycerin, and intensity. Those seeking a subtle, restrained, mild mannered Shiraz should look elsewhere. In spite of its mass, it is remarkably velvety-textured. Drink it over the next 10-15 years.
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Wine Spectator
Has richness, depth and impressive complexity, focusing its cherry, blackberry and subtle white pepper, cedar and mineral flavors beautifully through the long, elegant finish. Feels complete, just needs time to flesh out. Best from 2007 through 2020.
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.