2022 Kay Brothers Hillside Shiraz, McLaren Vale

A selection of blocks off the estate, with varying soils; 18 months élevage in American and French oak. This has some classic appeal, with forward fruit and a familiar lick of oak, but there’s also such polish and relative transparency to it. The fruit, from a cooler year, has a buoyant, vivid feel, absent heaviness and paired with an elegantly effective structural framework. Blackberry and cherry, freeze-dried raspberry, fine milk chocolate, vanilla, clove and allspice, iron and earth, dried scrubby herbs. This is engaging now, but the structure will see it age well, too. Drink 2025 to 2035.

95 points Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion Special Value, June 2025

The 2022 Hillside Shiraz is concentrated and juicy, with very fine tannins and an attractive splay of black and purple fruit. This is a brilliant wine, with a balanced palate that shows an abundance of fruit and savory tannins, framed by attractively spicy oak. It was basket pressed in the historic basket press from 1928 and matured in a combination of French and American oak for 18 months. Drink 2025 to 2037.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2025

Bold, ripe and muscular aromas of blood plums, iodine, bitter chocolate, blackberry compote, spices and licorice. The full-bodied palate has finely integrated tannins and creamy texture, leading into a long, spice-driven finish with dark fruit. Robust yet precise. Drink or hold.

93 points James Suckling, March 2025

93 points and Silver at the McLaren Wine Show 2025

Kay Brothers has been tending the Amery vineyard since 1890, making it the oldest McLaren Vale winery still in founding family hands. The estate spans five distinct soil types across its 54 acres, and winemaking here remains deliberately traditional with open fermenters, hand plunging and a 1928 basket press that has been central to every vintage since it was installed.

This Shiraz is a parcel selection from the Hillside vineyard, with complexity and depth in the wine drawing on the diversity of its soils and exposures. All the vines were grown from cuttings of the vines planted by Bert and Fred Kay in 1892.

The 2022 was a cooler season in McLaren Vale, and the results show in the wine's buoyancy and vivid character. Blackberry, cherry and freeze-dried raspberry on the nose, layered with fine milk chocolate, vanilla, clove and allspice, with iron, earth and dried scrubby herbs adding savoury depth. The palate is concentrated and juicy with very fine tannins, an attractive splay of dark and purple fruit and a long, spice-driven finish.

Polished and engaging now, it has the structure to age comfortably to 2035 and beyond. Give it plenty of air and serve alongside slow-roasted lamb, beef short rib or aged hard cheese.