Winemaker Notes
A Pandora's box of intricacy and sophistication. The staring role; Loganberry, Blackberry, Mulberry. The supporting act; Cracked Pepper, Sage, Mint, Roasted Coffee Beans. Seamless yet structural tannin structure. Approachable, Inviting, Satisfaction, Minerality.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Jim Barry's flagship is the famous Armagh Shiraz. The 2005 Shiraz "Armagh" was sourced from a vineyard planted in 1964 on its own roots. It spent 18 months in French and American oak and was bottled without fining or filtration. It has an alluring bouquet of cedar, Asian spices, pepper, boysenberry, plum, and blackberry. This leads to a full-bodied yet elegant Shiraz with a velvety texture and impeccable balance. It offers up gobs of ripe fruit flavors, serious depth and concentration, and a very long finish. It will continue evolving with an additional 6-8 years of cellaring and drink well through 2035.
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Wine Spectator
Rich, ripe and beautifully focused on its boysenberry, pomegranate and rhubarb flavors, which persist through the long, expressive finish. The firm tannins get a bit of a grip on the finish. Needs cellaring to soften. Best from 2011 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.”
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.