Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A gorgeous wine, smooth, polished, silky and seductive, teeming with licorice- and exotic spice-tinged blackberry, cherry and roasted meat flavors. Exquisitely balanced, sporting a finish that keeps undulating for minutes on end. Magnificent stuff. Shiraz.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Shiraz Hill of Grace is still young and feels far from its peak. It already displays significant volume and rich aromas of primary mulberry, blackberry, clove and cedar in a riper frame that have not yet been fleshed out. The palate also remains a little closed with spicy dark berry fruits wound up in mouthcoating tannins. However, the length and balance are immaculate, suggesting it just needs time.
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Vinous
The 2006 Shiraz Hill of Grace is still young and feels far from its peak. It already displays significant volume and rich aromas of primary mulberry, blackberry, clove and cedar in a riper frame that have not yet been fleshed out. The palate also remains a little closed with spicy dark berry fruits wound up in mouthcoating tannins. However, the length and balance are immaculate, suggesting it just needs time.
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.”
Higher in elevation and topographically more dramatic than the Barossa Valley floor, Eden Valley abuts it to its south and east. While it is a bit of an extension of Barossa, Eden Valley is topographically different than the pastoral Barossa Valley, and is composed of rocky hills and eucalyptus groves.
Recognizing Eden Valley’s potential with Riesling in the 1960s and 70s, producers started to move their Riesling production from Barossa to these better sites where schist soils on hilltops would produce more steely, tart and age-worthy examples. A most famous site, planted by Colin Gramp, called Steingarten, today produces one of the most outstanding Australian Rieslings. Youthful Eden Valley Rieslings express floral, grapefruit and mineral, while with time in the bottle, they become increasingly toasty and complex.
Riesling isn’t the only grape the region can grow; undeniably at lower altitudes Shiraz does very well. Mount Edelstone is a notable vineyard as well as the Hill of Grace, which boasts healthy Shiraz vines well over 100 years old. This is the only Australian region where Merlot has a made a name for itself and Chardonnay can be spectacular, particularly from the High Eden subregion in the southern valley.