Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Billed as a medium-bodied take on shiraz, this has a vivid array of raspberries and mulberries with cinnamon and other fragrant, woody spices. The palate is smoothly rendered and has a plush, bright and even-paced feel. All very nicely balanced.
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Wine Spectator
Spicy and intriguing, with touches of campfire, tomato leaf and sandalwood to the vibrant, juicy core of wild berry flavors. Green olive, black walnut and chai tea notes come in on the long, smooth finish. Drink now through 2034.
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Wine Enthusiast
Tim Smith once again delivers a well-priced Shiraz that’s simultaneously personality filled and classic Barossa. Relatively quiet at first, it needs swirling in the glass or time in a decanter, but when it does open up it offers an appealing combo of blueberry and blackberry preserves with subtle licorice and violet aromas. The palate comes with all of the power and richness we’ve come to expect from this wine style, but the tangy fruit shows a brightness that’s, refreshingly, not being wrestled into submission by overt oak.
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.