2019 Taylors The Pioneer Shiraz, Clare Valley

This is a rich red, dense and chewy in texture, warm in its delivery and overt overall. It offers up lashings of cola, maraschino cherry, sweet spices, milk chocolate, blood orange, clove, tobacco and rum-and-raisin ice-cream characters found in both the palate and bouquet. It is an over-the-top wine, so lush, creamy and velvety, and in that it finds a mark and makes for a successful, cartoon-like wine of massive profile and a big experience. It does show the hand of a little maturity in dried fruits, nuttiness and truffle-like detail now, too. In all this, success; it's Flavourtown, and ready to roll. Best drunk in coming years. Drink to 2029.

94 points Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, March 2026

Big and rich with vanilla oak over black fruit compote, the palate ripe and sweet, bolstered by American oak. Savoury, chewy tannins—perhaps a little charry—and with a kind of amaro bitter chocolate finish. Needs time for the oak to settle. Old school Aussie shiraz that will have many fans. Drink to 2045.

92 points Melissa Moore for The Real Review, November 2025

Very ripe dark and purple fruit character with sweet licorice, walnuts, hints of peppercorns and moist earth. Full and creamy with a deep core of fruit and chocolate, and a toffee-like character. Rich and lengthy. Drink now.

91 points Andrii Stetsiuk, November 2023

This a big wine that greets with aromas of cocktail cherries, dried fruit and chocolate. The palate is full-bodied and creamy, bursting with plush, earthy dark fruit and licorice. The ripe fruit is held firmly by sweet, charred cedar notes. Incredibly rich, with long lasting flavours.

A Shiraz that carries the deep, winter-like resonance of an older soul, balancing a remarkably plush, creamy mouthfeel with a firm, structural architecture of sweet, charred cedar. Think of it as a rich anchor for a shared banquet, pairing brilliantly with a slow-braised, gelatinous cut collagen-heavy beef shin. The wine’s intense dark fruit and licorice-tinged weight effortlessly cut through the rich, melting texture of the meat, while its firm structure reins in the sweet-savory complexity of the spice.

More about this wine

Taylors is a third-generation family-owned winery with substantial estate vineyards in South Australia’s Clare Valley. The Pioneer Shiraz is one of the family’s flagship wines. The 2019 vintage was marked by warm to hot, dry conditions.