2024 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Syrah, Frankland River

The 2024 Isolation Ridge Syrah leads with an abundance of rose petals, violet, cherry blossom, pink peppercorn and ironstone. The palate is gravelly, open-weave and silky and emphasizes the perfume on the nose. This is routinely a wine of contrasts, and I love that about it. It is both floral and bloody, gritty and sleek, but most of all, it tastes of the place from which it comes: Frankland River. This is a place of sunny days and cold nights, high natural acidity, gravel loam soils and wide-open skies—a place as pretty as the wine. Drink to 2039.

96 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, August 2026

From the famed single vineyard planted in 1988 and certified organic vines. This site manages to enhance and illuminate its features, first by capturing the lilac and olive grove aromas, secondly by reinforcing those wild aromatics with potent fruit power. Here blueberries, hawthorn and plum skin. Savoury notes of fresh bay leaf and sage, tapenade and black peppercorn. Red clay and punchy bright acidity makes it a medium bodied drink with some sandy tannins and long lines of flavour. A wine that could compliment almost any tomato braised dish, think charred capsicum, cherry tomatoes and chorizo smooshed into a baguette. Or cellar further for 5-8 years further. A very impressive wine. Drink to 2034.

96 points Shanteh Wale for Wine Pilot, July 2026

This 2024 Syrah Isolation Ridge shows impressive poise and subtlety with savoury, aged spice and dark earth against a backdrop of blackberry, with excellent fruit definition. Very youthful with a firm base of gravelly tannins while the fresh, integrated acidity is well balanced with layers of cherry compote, earth and spice. There is a charming tension and vitality, a long, fine and streamlined finish showcasing serious potential to flower in a bottle. Still tightly bound, this needs years but is destined for great things. A benchmark Frankland River Shiraz. Drink to 2045.

96 points Angus Hughson for Wine Pilot, June 2026

Highly appealing, thanks to the gorgeous colour, heady aromas and plush palate. Floral and spicy with a dash of pepper, fresh herbs and a ferrous influence. There’s a plushness across the fuller-bodied palate as it unfurls, offering dark fruits, textural tannins and fine acidity. Drink to 2036.

95 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, August 2026

A wine that expresses the regionality of Frankland River, but also the meticulous attention to detail in the vineyard from this producer that has seen the wine evolve into one of the finest examples of this variety released in Western Australia. It’s in that medium body zone, hence the name syrah. Displays a light cherry and plum note with a little blue fruit on the nose and a fine underlying minerality. The oak is neatly integrated and the tannins fine and chalky. This was a very hot year and yet astute vineyard management and winemaking has produced a most stylish expression of this variety. Drink to 2036.

95 points Ray Jordan for Wine Pilot, July 2026

The same vineyard providing the fruit for a scintillating Riesling and a really superb Syrah/Shiraz – the French would have a fit. The team usually incorporate a small percentage of whole bunches in the fermentation and also a dollop of Viognier. And possibly Mourvèdre in some years. Maturation is in older French oak, large foudres, as well as puncheons. The colour is a vibrant dark purple/magenta. This is beautifully perfumed with aromas of florals, black cherries, aniseed, violets, plums, Asian spices and smoked meats. There is exquisite balance, good focus, excellent length and the wine finishes with very fine, sleek tannins. It remains persistent, while the intensity never wavers. A wine which will provide great pleasure over the next fifteen to twenty years. Drink to 2046.

95 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, July 2026

An effortlessly chic Syrah from the cool air of Frankland River. Mulberry, rosehip and warm concrete. In the mouth, it’s medium-bodied, but generous nonetheless, with raw cacao-like tannins that feel both chocolatey and squeaky. The fruit is bright and wrapped in liquorice and rusty-nail minerality. It’s bound tight to begin, I’d suggest throwing it through a decanter and drinking it with a juicy sausage. Drink to 2036.

94 points Cyndal Petty for Wine Pilot, July 2026

Frankland Estate was founded in 1988 by Barrie Smith and Judi Cullam deep in the Frankland River subregion of Western Australia's Great Southern, about as remote as Australian wine gets.

The second generation now runs the estate: brother and sister Hunter and Elizabeth Smith, with Elizabeth's husband Brian Kent as winemaker since 2010. They were raised on the land and live on it, which shapes everything about how the vineyard is managed and how the wines are made; organic conversion began in 2005, with full certification achieved for the 2009 harvest.

Their Isolation Ridge vineyard is built on ironstone gravel over clay — the family call it coffee rock — fragile, infertile soils that reward with wines that carry a distinctly savoury, ferrous signature alongside generous fruit and natural acidity. The Southern Ocean's influence and cool nights ensure the fruit hangs long into autumn without losing freshness or energy.

Frankland Estate made the deliberate shift from Shiraz to Syrah on this wine a few vintages back. It is a small but meaningful signal about where they see it sitting stylistically. Cool-climate, perfumed, medium-bodied, co-fermentation with small amounts of Viognier to lift the aromatics and a portion of whole bunches adding savoury complexity. Matured in large French oak foudres which build texture without leaving an oak signature on the fruit.

The 2024 comes in the house style defined by black pepper and spice. Vivid and persistent, it runs through a core of dark cherry, plum and ironstone minerality. The tannins are shapely and fine, the finish long and savoury with a floral lift that lingers.

This is a wine that rewards a couple of years in the bottle but doesn't demand it. Good company for a spiced duck breast, slow-roasted lamb shoulder with preserved lemon, or anything with enough depth to meet it on its own terms.