2022 Dalwhinnie Moonambel Shiraz, Pyrenees

This wine is an utter joy with its gorgeous mulberry, black cherry, cacao nib and warm spice. The palate has a fabulous vibrancy and energy, making it highly engaging and inviting. The strength of the vineyard shows through, as does the age of the vines. 20 months in French barriques imparts nutty top notes, which integrate as the wine opens. It is a classy, delicious wine that beautifully expresses its site. Drink to 2030.

96 points & Special Value Toni Paterson for Halliday Wine Companion, August 2025

A fine-tuned bottling from this cooler vintage with impressive depth and character, showing blood plums, black cherries, sarsaparilla, mocha, dried herbs, cracked pepper and spices. The palate is full and textural yet light on its feet with finely integrated tannins, bright acidity and a long, luscious finish. A detailed shiraz from old vines planted in the 1970s. Drink or hold.

95 points Ryan Montgomery for James Suckling, September 2026

Opaque core with a deep purple rim. Mulberry compote and dark chocolate aromas. Full bodied and ripe without being overbearing. Dark berries fill the centre, followed by dried herbs, vanilla bean and beef stock notes. Tannins show power and drive through the palate, finishing with a final drying flourish. Drink to 2037.

94 points Stuart Knox for the Real Review, December 2025

From the cooler, La Niña-influenced 2022 season, the estate grown fruit for this wine was handpicked and fermented with endemic yeasts in small batch open fermenters for ten to fourteen days. The parcels were pressed to French oak barriques as they approached dryness and matured in these for twenty months. The final blend is a barrel selection of parcels deemed suitable for the Moonambel label.

About this producer

The foundations of Dalwhinnie were laid in 1973 when Ballarat-based architect Ewan Jones purchased a property in Moonambel, in the heart of what is now the Pyrenees wine region of Victoria.

The sheltered, amphitheatre like site sits at an elevation just shy of 600 metres. Its first vines were planted in 1976 and stand in fragile, infertile soils that receive most of their modest annual rain fall from late winter to late spring, the sloping grounds providing good drainage for both water and air, with frosts never a threat for this high elevation vineyard. The vines receive no irrigation water and are farmed to organic principles.

The key varieties in the 16-hectare vineyard are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, with smaller blocks of Viognier, Pinot Noir and Sangiovese used for blending and experimental purposes. The majority of the fruit used for the Dalwhinnie wines is estate grown, with some sourced from other growers in the region for the Mesa-labelled wines and the fruit used for the Tasmanian Three Valleys Pinot Noir-blend.

Dalwhinnie been part of Fogarty Hall Wine Group’s steadily growing portfolio of premium wine producers since 2020. Winemaking is guided by the group’s highly regarded chief winemaker Julian Langworthy and relies on Dalwhinnie’s viticulturist Sam Bartlett’s efforts in crafting these now legendary wines.