2024 Adelina Shiraz Mataro, Clare Valley

The 2024 Shiraz Mataro comprises 70% Shiraz and the balance Mataro. The Shiraz was sourced from Block 4 (planted in 1915) and Block 7 (planted in 2013), while the Mataro comes from the Block 3 bush vines (planted in 2012). The Shiraz blocks are rooted in red sand, mild clay, slate and lime over a clay base. The Mataro is grown on grayer sandy loam. All parcels were picked and fermented separately in concrete. Block 4 spent 16 days on the skins, Block 7 spent 24 days on the skins, and the Block 3 Mataro spent 31 days on the skins. The wine was then matured for 16 months in 700-liter French oak, 25% of which was new. Aromatically, the wine leads with red rose petals and apples, dark berry fruits and exotic spices. The palate is silky and delicious; the tannins are velvety but open enough to get a handle on, while the fruit is plush and composed. It is an immediately impressive wine upon first sip, and this feeling extends through the long finish. This is so good. Shiraz Mataro from this part of the world has tremendous provenance, and this wine comes highly recommended. "Gorgeous" is a word I've uttered a few times while tasting this. Drink to 2039.

96 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, August 2026

As good a union of these regular bedfellows as you could hope to see. Dark berries, cocoa, quince paste, a dried floral arrangement in a coal scuttle. A lithe linear frame, depth without density, a wine with beautiful even flow and glide. Crushed chalk tannins, sinewy and deft.

96 points Nick Ryan for The Weekend Australian

Saltbush, iodine and green olive characters run through plum, earth, leather and orange rind. This is a medium weight wine with integrated-but-assertive tannin, a sheeted impression to the (long) finish, character aplenty and the fruit to match. It’s a wine of momentum but then too it’s a wine of strings and muscle. Truth be told, it’s a fantastic wine, and startling value.

94 points Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front

Adelina was established in 2002 by Col McBryde and Jen Gardner and draws on fruit from the certified organic Gardner family vineyard in Clare Valley’s Spring Farm sub-region as well as select contract vineyards across the region that are both organically and conventionally farmed.

Their site was originally planted by A.P Birks and his brother William. It features centenarian Shiraz and Pedro Ximenez, along with 80-year-old Grenache as well as Shiraz, Mataro and Malbec planted at the start of the 2010s. The vineyard sits between two other legendary Clare vineyards planted by the Birks brothers, Aberfeldy and Wendouree, and was purchased by the Gardner family in 1986.