Winemaker Notes
This wine is immediately thick, coating the entire palate and has amazing length. The flavors are all dark fruits with a burst of chocolate and liquorice, moving evenly from entry through the mid to late palate. The tannins remain fruit filled throughout, resulting in a soft rewarding end palate leaving a lingering generous mouth-feel. This is one of best Ares to date and will last a long time in a good cellar.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Big and brawny, with a dense core of fresh blueberry, currant, raspberry and dusky spice flavors that sprawl over a layer of prickly tannins. It all melds together on the finish, shooting off sparks of espresso and licorice. The afterburners kick in and this sails off into a long coda. Needs time to soften. Shiraz. Best from 2011 through 2019. 1,200 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Ares is 100% Shiraz from Barossa and McLaren Vale aged for 24 months in barrel, the last 12 in 100% new French. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it displays an aromatic array of toast, smoke, game, lavender, and blueberry. Dense, ripe, and savory but slightly compact (a common trait in this vintage), this is a solid effort that does not come close to justifying its extravagant price.
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.