2021 Dukes Vineyard Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz, Porongurup

Ripe and generous with opulent rich fruit. It certainly is a step up from the very good Single Vineyard Shiraz loaded with ripe juicy plummy fruit underpinned by a chalky tannin precision. The sweet fruit is given a little boost with the sprinkle of spices and dried herbs, while the French oak management is right on the money. The smooth and seamless palate is a joy. Drink 2023 to 2031.

95 points Ray Jordan

The cool growing area of the Porongurup range is an incredibly beautiful, evocative place. At once vast and intimate, it has the capacity to show you open vistas and, at the next turn, tight vignettes of granite outcrops. The Duke's Magpie Hill vineyard is planted on a gentle slope set against a backdrop of one such outcrop. The wines from this vineyard have a pristine quality to them, and this 2021 Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz is a prime example of what the vineyard is capable of. It offers notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, raspberry, squid ink, nutmeg, white pepper and blood plum. It has all of the beauty of the previous vintages, but it feels like the elongation through the finish, which I so admire in this wine, is missing. It is lovely, pretty and pure. Drink 2023 to 2040.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, August 2023

A flavorful, balanced, fleshy and well-driven shiraz with aromas of dark cherries, mulberries, roasted meat and baking spices. Medium-bodied with fine tannins. Focused, dense and plush, with a generous finish. Drink or hold.

94 points James Suckling, February 2025

Deep purple-red colour with a fresh, bright bouquet of spices, dark-plum, coconut and chocolate, the palate medium-full weighted with plenty of soft fluffy tannins and richness teamed with elegance. Oak is very much in the background. A typical Great Southern shiraz. Drink 2022 to 2036.

93 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, November 2022

Duke's Vineyard was planted in 1999 by founders Duke and Hilde Ranson on a ten-hectare site nestled against the ancient granite of the Porongurup Range in Western Australia's Great Southern — a landscape of towering rock formations and native forest that is as dramatic as it is remote. Experienced winemaker Ben Cane and his partner Sarah Date purchased the property in 2022 and have continued the estate's remarkable standard without missing a beat.

The Porongurups rise abruptly from the surrounding farmland in a series of vast granite outcrops. The visually arresting landscape is viticulturally distinctive, with granitic sandy clay loams draining freely while retaining moisture. The cool climate and diurnal temperature variations extend the growing season and build the mineral tension and precise acidity that define Riesling from this site.

The Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz is sourced from the central point of the Magpie Hill vineyard where the combination of elevation, granite soils and aspect consistently delivers the finest fruit on the estate. The 2021 fruit was hand-picked, destemmed and allowed to cold soak, then pumped over several times daily with post-ferment maceration bringing total time on skins to 17 days. Aged in French oak hogsheads for 14 months, roughly two thirds seasoned and the balance new. The wine was bottled without fining and with minimal filtration.

The result is pristine and immediately compelling. Blueberry, blackberry, cassis and blood plum on the nose, with nutmeg, white pepper and dried violets threading through. The palate is rich and plush, with rounded tannins, a seam of fresh acidity and a smooth, seamless finish. Pure, beautiful and built to age gracefully.

Pour alongside a well-seasoned rack of lamb.

Drink now through mid-2030s.