Winemaker Notes
#36 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2022
Named for the street on which the vineyard is located, Brooks Road Shiraz exhibits the compelling single site character of the vineyard. 2019 Brooks Road exhibits the compelling dynamic between savory and fruit flavours which is textbook Shiraz from Clarendon. Sweet blueberry and rich red fruits interlace with notes of clove and menthol. The palate is expansive but pure finesses with a beautifully balanced acidity leading to a silky finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has such effortless depth and impressive measure. It delivers aromas of ripe red and dark plums with slate and blackberries, framed in fresh, subtly spicy and cedary oak. The palate is packed with ripe red plums, red cherries and mulberries, as well as deeper blueberries and darker plums. The power is innate and the palate so focused. Elegant and pure. Drink over the next decade or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
A broodier bottling than the more gregarious 2020, this vintage still offers oodles of concentrated dark fruit, a slightly charred veg note, toasty spice and a frame of fine, cola-like oak influence. Constructed for the long haul, with intensity and focus, a lift of acidity and muscular, chiseled tannins woven between the supple fruit and spice.
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Wine Spectator
Impressive, rich and fleshy, with blackberry, blueberry and huckleberry notes at the core, but shows tremendous depth, concentration and polish. Offers accents of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, salted caramel and rosemary, backed by velvety tannins on the finish, with the flavors gaining extra torque and momentum. Drink now
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Marked by notes of vanilla and creosote on the nose, the 2019 Brooks Road Shiraz follows those opening salvos with blueberry and plum fruit, cedar shavings and dark chocolate. It's medium to full-bodied, supple and ripe, with a plush feel and a long, licorice-tinged finish. There's ample concentration and power, but the wine is already approachable and I'd expect it to age relatively quickly. Drink it over the next decade or so.
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Wine & Spirits
The team at Yangarra started bottling wine from their Hickinbotham estate in 2012. The dry-farmed vineyard in Clarendon produced a shiraz with the meatiness and bloodiness of rare roast beef, backed up by McLaren Vale tannins that add a black mushroom savor. It’s smooth and ripe, a pleasure with filet mignon.
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.”
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.