Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Also outstanding, is the 2010 Shiraz Shotfire. The good news is that there are 15,000 cases of it and discounters will offer it at less than $20 a bottle. Dark ruby/purple, with notes of roasted coconut, graphite, damp earth, blackberry and cassis, this perfumed wine hits the palate with a thunderous richness from the glycerin and dense fruit. Quite sexy, stunning, with some structured tannin in the finish, this wine should drink well for another 5-7 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
An excellent value, the 2010 Shotfire Shiraz offers bold, punched-up cherry-berry fruit framed by hints of vanilla, dried herbs and cracked pepper. It’s a big wine that's reasonably creamy in texture, with plenty of mouthcoating flavor on the finish. Drink it over the next few years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, polished and open-textured, with plum and blackberry flavors that show a violet note, lingering easily. Drink now through 2018.
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 Barossa Zone encompasses the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley. Some of the oldest vines in Australia can be found here.
Barossa Valley of course is the most important and famous wine growing region in all of Australia where 140+ year-old, dry-farmed Shiraz vines still produce inky, purple and dense juice for some of Australia's best wines.
In the cooler, wetter Eden Valley sub-region, the Hill of Grace vineyard is home to famous Shiraz vines from the 1800s but the region produces also some of Australia’s very best and age-worthy Rieslings.