Winemaker Notes
Black to the core, with a magenta rim. This wine has aromas of cherries, plums, chocolate, cedar, spice and scorched earth. Very seductive. Dense plums explode onto the palate with spice, subtle chocolate and tar. The fine tannin backbone rolls on and on from the mid palate, surrounded by fresh juiciness, dark fruit and subtle oak.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2010 Bella's Garden is profoundly scented of blackberries, warm black plums and mulberries with an underlying earthiness plus hints of cinnamon stick, licorice and toast. Rich, ripe and concentrated on the full bodied palate, it is beautifully poised in the mouth with a medium level very fine tannins and crisp acid line framing the dense flesh and going into a long multi-layered finish.
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Wine Spectator
Pepper, clove and plum flavors weave through dense dark cherry and roasted plum fruit, melding together smoothly on the complex and expansive finish. A big wine with depth and harmony. Best from 2013 through 2020.
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.