2022 Taylors St Andrews Shiraz, Clare Valley

“Succulent and super-rich rendering of the variety with absolutely deep spice, woody notes, chocolate and caramel. All good. It's massive and dense but manages balance well with its massive, opulent presence in play. Bold, done well. Drink to 2040.”

94 points Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, November 2024

“This looks the goods at three years old: deep purplish-red, and plenty of extract. Blackberries, dates, anise and smells of eastern spices meet the nose, against a charry background of mocha oak. It's full-bodied and oaky to taste, yet ripe fruit stands up well in the mix. Tannins are layered and grippy, needing time to soften. A wine for bottle age, and I suspect it will always remain one of the oak-lovers. Drink to 2037.”

90 points Ralph Kyte-Powell for The Real Review, February 2025

Rich and ripe, this wine opens to lifted aromas of dark fruit and dried dates, with notes of licorice, anise, black cardamom and charred cedar emerging with time in the glass. The full-bodied palate mirrors the nose. It has layers of dense and ripe fruit against background flavours of vanilla and coffee. The tannins are a firm but welcome support to the rich flavours that continue to a long finish.

Heat up the cast iron for a spectacular dry-aged bone-in ribeye cooked rare with a deeply caramelized, charcoal-smoky crust. This is a wine built for serious structural heavy lifting, possessing a magnificent, fully resolved density that anchors the room. Those complex, underlying pulses of black cardamom, dark fruit, and dark-roast coffee act as a perfect bridge to the rich fat and melting collagen of the beef, while the wine’s firm, architectural tannins slice effortlessly through the meat's decadent texture, refreshing your palate with every velvety sip.

Keeping it casual? Fire up the backyard BBQ on a cool evening and let this wine wrap itself around thick-cut pork belly skewers glazed in an anise-spiced soy reduction. The char echoes the wine's toasted cedar notes, while its plush, concentrated fruit weight handles the rich, unctuous crunch of the pork beautifully.

More about this wine

Taylors is a third-generation family-owned winery with substantial estate vineyards in South Australia’s Clare Valley. The St Andrews wines sit at the top of their diverse portfolio, released only from select estate parcels and only in vintages the winemaking team considers worthy. The 2022 is one of those, after a near perfect season, with good yields and great quality. The fruit for this wine was given extended skin contact before 18 months in French oak, with one third new barrels. The oak influence is present but measured.