Winemaker Notes
A classic Clare Shiraz, that perfectly captures the regions unique terroir and personality. A full throttled fruit style, round in the mouth yet tempered and elegant in its finish. Brimming with dark chocolate, red fruits and tasty meats, the classy French oak influences and dense tannins providing further interest and intrigue
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet colored with a hint of purple, the 2014 Shiraz Covenant has scents of dried plums, crème de cassis and sautéed herbs with underlying loam and forest floor hints. Full-bodied and firmly structured, the muscular fruit is offset nicely by grainy tannins and a racy backbone, delivering a long finish
-
James Suckling
This has some really plump, rich and alluring fruit with dried plum and biscuit spices on the nose. The palate’s really fleshy and juicy. Sheet-like tannins, and a bold flavor-filled finish.
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.