Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Steely, powerful and focused, showing a welcome freshness to the licorice-accented blackberry, dark plum and black cherry flavors, lingering on the finish along with hints of pepper and clove. Best from 2012 through 2020. 750 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Covenant Shiraz has a deep garnet color with a tinge of purple in the rim. It displays intense notes of fresh blackberry, black currant, toast, marmite, black olive and cumin seed plus a touch of meat. Medium-high acid and medium-firm, finely grained tannins support the full-bodied, richly fruited flesh, finishing long. Approachable now, it should continue to develop and drink to 2019.
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.