Winemaker Notes
Dark crimson in color, with deep garnet hues. A concentrated array of aromas of mulberry, blackberry and dark plum indicate the richness to come, while savory and complex notes of charcuterie, cedar, sage and five spice tease the senses. Plush and velvety on the palate, the wine has intense fruit concentration with plum, red currant, blackberry and anise flavors, yet an enchantingly elegant and refined structure. Layers of silky tannins reveal the impressive depth of the wine before giving way to an incredibly long finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a very complex nose, offering so many facets of spices and fragrance with florals and orange peel, as well as crushed stones, ripe black cherries, blackberries and dark cherries, earth, chocolate and more. The intensity and power here is very tightly held and it has a build of such precise tannins, which carry very intense and assertively ripe blackberries, dark cherries, ripe plums and blueberries. So much on offer here. This has a very bold, intense feel. Exceptional vintage. One of their finest. Try from 2028.
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Decanter
Gorgeous floral lift and vibrant plum and fresh, pureed blackberry and mulberry aromas. The palate is full of rich, ripe, sculpted and slippery-smooth fruit, so young and lithe it runs away from you, trailing deep notes of spice, black olive, dried herbs and ironstone minerals in its wake. On day two, it is buoyant and muscular: the fruit starts to build, bearing waves of ground black pepper, anise, liquorice, baking spices, tamarind, cardamom and cigar smoke. Fine but distinct layers of lacy tannins and gently creamy oak support an ultra-long and harmonious finish. Powerful but perfectly proportioned; the consummate Shiraz.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a rich, luxurious, fruitdriven vintage release, with oodles of cherry, blueberry and plum threaded with licorice, mint, mocha and flowers alsongside a cured meat underbelly. The palate offers wonderfully concentrated, satiny fruit cinched by powerful, sandpaper-textured tannins and buoyed by pitch-perfect acidity. It’s showing a lick of polished oak but is crafted for the very long haul.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Shiraz Hill of Grace is a hearty release showing the season's generosity as it ripples with powerful blackberry, mulberry, chocolate and licorice aromas, plus more savory touches of graphite. Mouth-filling and packed with dark berry flavors, it delivers an impressive impact of sweet fleshy flavors with a tarry edge. The finish is chewy and structured, promising strong cellaring potential.
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Vinous
The 2016 Shiraz Hill of Grace is a hearty release showing the season's generosity as it ripples with powerful blackberry, mulberry, chocolate and licorice aromas, plus more savory touches of graphite. Mouth-filling and packed with dark berry flavors, it delivers an impressive impact of sweet fleshy flavors with a tarry edge. The finish is chewy and structured, promising strong cellaring potential.
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.