Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With a flamboyant nose of barbecue smoke, cassis, blackberries and mulberries, the 2010 Oracle Shiraz is a terrific effort. Full-bodied and velvety in texture, it adds hints of cola-like spice on the lengthy finish. It's balanced between fruity and savory, young and old, and it appears to be at its peak. Drink it over the next several years.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a full-bodied, creamy-textured Shiraz that manages to retain a sense of poise at the same time. Cedar, vanilla and baking spices frame a lush mix of red and black berry fruit, yet this is no mere fruit bomb, adding hints of roast meat and mocha. Drink this plush, supple wine now–2025.
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Wine & Spirits
Clean, black and potent, this is laden with blueberry fruitiness and new oak. Scents of violets and mineral-inflected tannins add layers to this rich, fruity style.
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.