Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Shiraz The Beast spent 22 months in oak (65% new French), so it has a toasty, cedary veneer to it right now. There's plenty of cherry fruit, so just give it some time in the cellar before popping a cork. By then the oak will have morphed into lovely dried-spice elements adorning ripe cherries, and the full-bodied wine will show more elegance on the lingering finish.
-
Wine Spectator
Generous and plump, with a mouthful of chocolate-covered coffee bean, dried cherry, blueberry and toasted rye bread details. There's plenty of persistence on the finish, where a dried sage detail emerges and the tannins firm up. Better than previously reviewed. Drink now through 2030.
-
Wine Enthusiast
As the name suggests, this wine is indeed big and powerful, but it's elegant and classy too. Heady notes of violets, red berries, smoked meat, white pepper and licorice are entwined with tightly wound, fine-grained tannins. One for the cellar. Drink 2019–2032.
Cellar Selection
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.