Oof. Strong game meat and white pepper scents, very aromatic, dark cherry, salted plums, black olive, liquorice. Whiffs of the best. Medium bodied. Silky texture, supple too, dark fruited, rippling with dark cherry and that plumminess but with so much spice in there too, oh, and black olive, briny minerality and graphite stuff. Wow. It’s unreal. Has an authority to the wine. Warming but balanced. Lushness and freshness, super syrah here with character lavished onto a drinker. Serious stuff.
95 points Mike Bennie winefront.com.au
This is McLaren Vale meeting the northern Rhône on its own terms. Full bodied, but savoury. Sweetness of obvious fruit, mercifully avoided. The clutch of reduction handled deftly, imparting tension and a sense of freshness across the mid palate. This is how to do it! Dried nori, jamon, tapenade salinity and violets. There's a core of unadulterated blueberry sweetness tempered by clove, cardamom and a skein of peppery acidity threaded long.