Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Exile was sourced from a single dry-farmed vineyard owned by the winery and located in the center of Nuriootpa. It is composed of 85% Shiraz, 10% Mourvedre, and 5% Grenache and was aged for 18-20 months in new French oak. Deep cherry-colored, it exhibits an alluring perfume of toasty oak, wood smoke, Asian spices, tar, blueberry, and black cherry. This leads to a full-bodied wine with chewy fruit, ripe flavors, great depth and concentration, and a pure, lengthy finish. Give this hedonistic effort 3-5 years in the cellar and drink it through 2030.
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Wine Enthusiast
A single-vineyard wine that contains about 85% Shiraz, 10% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache, this is an incredibly concentrated wine. Slightly lifted aromas keep it from seeming heavy, but the flavors are dense and fudge-like, chocolaty and superripe. Dusty tannins on the finish suggest cellaring through 2010, and it should age well through at least 2020. Cellar Selection.
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.