Giaconda Estate Vineyard Shiraz 2019

Tasted double-blind and, when the wine’s identity was revealed – and I’d raved – the comment was made that ‘you can take the boy out of the north-east, but you can’t take the north-east out …

Wow this one leaps from the glass. In a bracket of Australian Shiraz wines this stood out both for its difference and as my favourite. Lots of leafy, autumnal spice and pepper with juicy, ripe, authoritative fruit driving through. Peppery palate, black cherry, juicy, and then dry through the finish, but not at the expense of the flavour, not at the expense of fruit. It’s complex and structured but it has a generosity; a life. Drink 2024-2032+. 95 Points. Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front.

Dark red to coal black in colour. Notes of damp forest floor combine with a zephyr of savoury meats and campfire smoke, with raspberry and star anise notes lifted by the whole-bunch component. Round and rich with a satisfying fruit-laden palate of wild berries coming to the fore. The tannins are powder-fine and convey red fruits with a twist of spiced vanilla oak, long on the palate. Evocative and immensely complex, this finishes with a strong mineral and graphite impact. A wine that is destined to have a long future. – Winery’s Notes