Winemaker Notes
This wine presents a medium to deep crimson color with purple hues and offers rich aromas of Satsuma plum, mulberry, and floral notes intertwined with sweet spice, chocolate, and savory hints. The palate reveals layers of plummy fruit and sweet spice balanced by soft, velvety tannins in a complex medium- to full-bodied style, finishing long with notes of mocha, bramble, and vanilla. It pairs beautifully with stir-fried beef with basil, American-style slow-cooked ribs, a traditional Sunday roast, or mature cheddar.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
Shiraz that spent 24 months in 11% new American oak, 5% new French oak and 84% seasoned American and French oak hogsheads. Notes of juicy damson plum, blackberry and black cherry cut with brown spice, cedar, violets, roasting meats, dark chocolate and earth. There's great value, medium-bodied drinking here with pure fruit, fine tannins and some decent length on that spicy finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Shiraz Valley Floor is very well composed. This is still a little in its shell but is showing signs of cellaring potential. It opens with broody blackberry, dark chocolate and graphite aromas. The considerable savory oak influence here is not out of place. Its excellent volume of mouth-filling flavor is kept fresh by acidity and al dente tannins. The 2022 is a classic Barossan Shiraz that will fill out nicely over the next ten years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich winter warming aromas of black olives, cassis and plums are dusted with cocoa powder and ground pepper. There's depth and power here and it's all currently wound into a tight bundle that should unravel nicely with a few more years in bottle. Cellar for the next few years then open anytime until 2035.
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.”
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.