Winemaker Notes
Dark purple yet bright in color. On the nose, ripe plums crushed, spice, blackberry jam, black pepper, matchstick and milled timber. A soft and gently rounded palate with ample rich fruits smoothly laced with bucolic tannins and framed by a keen keel of stirring acidity. Plums and blackberries return along with hints of milk chocolate. The giving blackberry and plum fruit is perfectly counterweighted by the strangely reassuring gruffness of the tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
A richly flavored wine that is extremely attractive for the price. Scents of damson plum, blueberry and satsuma plum with red, sour fleshiness piercing the mid-palate and providing lift. Supple and round with a lilt of acidity and a crease of oak tannin across the lingering, easygoing finish.
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James Suckling
A richly flavored wine that is extremely attractive for the price. Aromas of damson plum, blueberry and satsuma plum with red, sour fleshiness piercing the mid-palate and providing lift. Supple and round with a touch of acidity and a crease of oak tannin across the lingering, easygoing finish.
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Wine & Spirits
McLaren Vale in all its sunny richness, this carries a heavy dose of mineral tannins that give it edges and angles. Youthfully blunt, this needs a year in bottle.
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.”
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.