Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion, Fifty Great Reds, July 2023
This for me is one of the red wines of the year. It’s so savoury, so firm, so deeply fruited and so compelling at every turn. It’s heady with fragrant dry-and-green herbs, comes laced with pretty floral notes, pours rich cherry, plum and graphite flavours straight at you and coats everything in the lightest, most deft application of smoky, chocolate-like oak. It’s brilliant to drink now but it will mature for absolute yonks. It’s magnificent. 97 Points.
Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion, 50 Great Red Wines, July 2023
From a relatively close-planted plot on clay, ironstone, quartzite and shale. Whole bunches fermented wild in open tops with minimal agitation. A headily aromatic shiraz with notes of lavender and green olive and an underbelly of verdant herb and mezcal, the legacy of whole bunches in the ferment. Notes of damson plum, red cherry, violet and sarsaparilla trail across a raft of peppery tannins, a bit drying due to the low-yielding year. A whiff of iodine, peat and smoked meat lingers. This will benefit from some patience. 95 Points.
Shanteh Wale, The Wine Pilot, May 2023
From a close planted site within a stone throw from the winery. The Balhannah is always a distinctive wine. Old world in its bouquet garni of herbs and earthy tones but with lift and poise of fine modern Australia Shiraz. The 2020 is no different. Sicilian olives, blackcurrant, pomegranate molasses and fennel fronds. Sugar plum, stringybark, thyme and powdered cumin. It's quite the journey to watch the wine unfurl its many layers. Those that adore Hermitage and its ability to transform over time, this is right up your alley. Tannins are densely packed like biting through a baklava’s filo pastry sheets and acidity really carries the flavours on and on this vintage. I’m truly impressed with the balance for a vintage that for watchful winemakers was anything but effortless. They make it look easy. Drink with a tomato based pasta loaded with anchovies, black olives and pancetta cubes. 95 Points.
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, May 2023
Shiraz from a north-facing site at 380m at Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills. Stunning shiraz. Rich in fruit, texture and savoury detail. Dark chocolate and black cherry, plum and sweet spice, smoky oak and graphite. Twiggy spice and associated herb characters are here but they keep their head down for the most part. Is there some reduction here? Probably a little, thankfully. The length here is seriously good, as is the package as a whole. 96 Points.
Huon Hooke, The Real Review, April 2023
This could have easily been labelled ‘syrah’ as it conforms to the Northern Rhône model. The grapes were off 1.35 hectares of Savii 17 clone vines, planted beside the Shaw + Smith winery in 2005.
The colour is medium-deep with a tint of purple and there are sousbois/forest-floor aromas, showing some whole-bunch influence, with assorted spices including black pepper. It’s full bodied and rich, generous, ample and ripe with charming texture and a long and resonant finish. A compelling mix of cool-grown spices with superripe abundance of flavour and body. 96 Points, Top Rank, Nu. 1 2020 Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills.
Huon Hooke, The Real Review, March 2023
Deep, brooding red-purple, bright colour, the bouquet is very foresty, spicy, with dominant undergrowth and whole-bunch nuances adding layters to the raspberry fruit, vanilla traces underling it all. Dried herb notes bring to mind oregano and thyme. Intense and driving with a long carry. Impressive cool-climate shiraz: more syrah in style than typical Aussie shiraz. (Clone Savii 17). 96 Points.
Andrew Caillard, The Vintage Journal, March 2023
Medium deep crimson. Intense mulberry, blackberry pastille mocha aromas with hint of bush garrigue. Medium bodied wine with blackberry pastille, cassis flavours, fine leafy texture, a touch of black pepper and underlying savoury/ chinotto notes. Lovely weight, viscosity and purity. 95 Points.
Adelaide Hills Wine Show 2022 - Gold Medal
Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion, Fifty Great Reds, July 2023
This for me is one of the red wines of the year. It’s so savoury, so firm, so deeply fruited and so compelling at every turn. It’s heady with fragrant dry-and-green herbs, comes laced with pretty floral notes, pours rich cherry, plum and graphite flavours straight at you and coats everything in the lightest, most deft application of smoky, chocolate-like oak. It’s brilliant to drink now but it will mature for absolute yonks. It’s magnificent. 97 Points.
Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion, 50 Great Red Wines, July 2023
From a relatively close-planted plot on clay, ironstone, quartzite and shale. Whole bunches fermented wild in open tops with minimal agitation. A headily aromatic shiraz with notes of lavender and green olive and an underbelly of verdant herb and mezcal, the legacy of whole bunches in the ferment. Notes of damson plum, red cherry, violet and sarsaparilla trail across a raft of peppery tannins, a bit drying due to the low-yielding year. A whiff of iodine, peat and smoked meat lingers. This will benefit from some patience. 95 Points.
Shanteh Wale, The Wine Pilot, May 2023
From a close planted site within a stone throw from the winery. The Balhannah is always a distinctive wine. Old world in its bouquet garni of herbs and earthy tones but with lift and poise of fine modern Australia Shiraz. The 2020 is no different. Sicilian olives, blackcurrant, pomegranate molasses and fennel fronds. Sugar plum, stringybark, thyme and powdered cumin. It's quite the journey to watch the wine unfurl its many layers. Those that adore Hermitage and its ability to transform over time, this is right up your alley. Tannins are densely packed like biting through a baklava’s filo pastry sheets and acidity really carries the flavours on and on this vintage. I’m truly impressed with the balance for a vintage that for watchful winemakers was anything but effortless. They make it look easy. Drink with a tomato based pasta loaded with anchovies, black olives and pancetta cubes. 95 Points.
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, May 2023
Shiraz from a north-facing site at 380m at Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills. Stunning shiraz. Rich in fruit, texture and savoury detail. Dark chocolate and black cherry, plum and sweet spice, smoky oak and graphite. Twiggy spice and associated herb characters are here but they keep their head down for the most part. Is there some reduction here? Probably a little, thankfully. The length here is seriously good, as is the package as a whole. 96 Points.
Huon Hooke, The Real Review, April 2023
This could have easily been labelled ‘syrah’ as it conforms to the Northern Rhône model. The grapes were off 1.35 hectares of Savii 17 clone vines, planted beside the Shaw + Smith winery in 2005.
The colour is medium-deep with a tint of purple and there are sousbois/forest-floor aromas, showing some whole-bunch influence, with assorted spices including black pepper. It’s full bodied and rich, generous, ample and ripe with charming texture and a long and resonant finish. A compelling mix of cool-grown spices with superripe abundance of flavour and body. 96 Points, Top Rank, Nu. 1 2020 Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills.
Huon Hooke, The Real Review, March 2023
Deep, brooding red-purple, bright colour, the bouquet is very foresty, spicy, with dominant undergrowth and whole-bunch nuances adding layters to the raspberry fruit, vanilla traces underling it all. Dried herb notes bring to mind oregano and thyme. Intense and driving with a long carry. Impressive cool-climate shiraz: more syrah in style than typical Aussie shiraz. (Clone Savii 17). 96 Points.
Andrew Caillard, The Vintage Journal, March 2023
Medium deep crimson. Intense mulberry, blackberry pastille mocha aromas with hint of bush garrigue. Medium bodied wine with blackberry pastille, cassis flavours, fine leafy texture, a touch of black pepper and underlying savoury/ chinotto notes. Lovely weight, viscosity and purity. 95 Points.
Adelaide Hills Wine Show 2022 - Gold Medal
