World Wine – Sam Kim (Wine Orbit)

World Wine – 98 points + Gold - Adelaide Wine Show

Wine Spectator – Juicy notes of ripe black cherry and spiced plum are thick and velvety, oozing with details of baking spices, tobacco and Earl Grey tea on the finish. Concentrated and complex. The thick tannins add some charm. Drink now through 2030.

The Wine Front – Pretty, floral, red and black fruit, a sneaky grid of pepper, dried roses and violet. Medium-bodied, concentrated, a little liquorice and spice, nutty, dense and clenched, very graphite and ‘mineral’ character, beef stock and meaty flavours too, and a long finish packed with silty tannin, coffee bean and violet. Beautiful Syrah here. All just so.

Wine Enthusiast – Simply put, this is a beauty of a Bullnose bottling. The ancient red-iron soils of this long-standing Hawkes Bay estate have turned out an evocative nose of plum and blueberry amid a sappy, early spring forest of fresh flowers, herbs and spice (think sage, bay, peppercorn, anise). There's brightness and freshness to the silky palate despite the chiseled tannins. Captures not only a sense of place but also Syrah's often elusive tightrope walk of power and elegance. Drink now–2030.

Huon Hooke – Deep, bright purple/red colour and a very aromatic pepper and mixed spice bouquet that shouts 'cool-climate shiraz'. The wine is medium to full-bodied and elegantly shaped, soft fine tannins doing a great job to restrain the exuberant fruit. Refreshing acidity is perfectly harmonised. A gem of a shiraz, very much a northern Rhône style, appropriately labelled syrah.

World Wine –

Antonio Galloni/Vinous – ‘Brilliant ruby-red. Spice-accented dark berry, cherry pit and succulent flowers on the perfumed nose. Fleshy and broad in the mouth but lively as well, offering sappy black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors that become sweeter with air. Closes gently tannic, with very good energy and persistence, leaving a spicecake note behind. Drink 2018- 2022.’

The Wine Front – If you’re lucky, and most of us aren’t, there comes a time in your life when it all comes together. I suspect that’s what’s happened with this Blewitt Springs vineyard, planted in the middle of the Second World War, and the collection of wine people behind MMAD, all of whom have weathered a lot of summers in a lot of places in the pursuit of wine excellence. This wine tastes of a lot of right decisions, and of a lot of time spent in the journey to them. It has texture, balance, flavour and all that, but as my mum would say, ‘any dumb bunny can do that’. More importantly, what this wine has is all the nods and winks. I once wrote, a long time ago, of a moment where union legend David Campese ran straight through a bunch of defenders without breaking stride, or altering course. He did something, something that couldn’t be seen, and made the impossible look effortless. So too here. It has degrees of silk, fruit enough, a spinnaker on the finish, a volume of nuance. If there was such a thing for single vineyard, vintage, Aussie shiraz, this wine would be classified as first growth.

James Halliday – "This is a seriously impressive release, showcasing winemaker Adam Wadewitz’s learnings from the first vintage and the bounty of full viticultural control. The old-vine fruit could easily handle about one-third whole bunch, a Wadewitz favourite. And that impact is profoundly positive, weaving in spicy, smoky notes and complexing tannins to provide exceptional tension without greenness. Red and blue fruits, violet and dusky red florals, coal dust, anise, cacao and roasted coffee bean. Intensity on the palate at moderate alcohol and no heavy mid-palate sweetness nor new oak. Rather, it is poised throughout, with fruit intensity seamlessly meshed into a silky, supple but aptly assertive structure, a ferrous nori/ kelp mineral note underpinning. For a site purchased prizing grenache, this is a revelation." - Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

James Suckling – Vivid aromas of crushed blackberries, cloves, iodine and dried kelp, lifted by a potpourri of purple flowers. Dense, compact and detailed, with tannic precision. This is a full-bodied wine, yet it is the intricacy of the structure that draw me back to the glass. Long, beautiful and destined for excellent drinking across the mid-term.

Huon Hooke – Very complex Rhône-ish meaty/spicy bouquet of formidable charm and detail. Theres a nicely judged touch of reduction in there, and the wine is fleshy and sumptuous on the palate, smooth textured and glossy, with a lingering aftertaste packed with supple, polished tannins that are in effortless support. An outstanding shiraz. The tannins are formidable and sneaky—they will ensure a long aging career. A stonking McLaren Vale regional shiraz.

James Suckling – Lovely purity of fruit here, especially when you consider the vintage, ranging from citrus to raspberries to iodine. The juicy and succulent tannins are just the right counterpoint to the rather tangy acidity, and this ends medium-chewy and grainy. Drink now.

James Halliday – "The ancient (1847 planted) vines provided the backbone of this ultra-elegant, medium-bodied, French-oaked shiraz. Its perfect texture and balance." - 98 Points - Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2023 (The Australian Newspaper, November 2023)

Wine Spectator –

The Wine Front –

James Halliday – "Glorious wine. Untold depths of the richest blackberry and plum fruit with a magically bright finish ex livewire acidity." 99 Points - James Halliday, The Weekend Australian

Wine Enthusiast – "Medium deep crimson. Intense blackberry, mulberry praline aromas with mocha sage herb garden notes. Superbly concentrated wine with deep set pure blackberry, dark plum, mulberry fruits, fine slinky tannins, attractive mid-palate richness and underlying mocha, vanilla notes. Finishes firm with chinotto, hint marzipan notes. Superb mineral length, vigour and extract." (99 points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal)

The Wine Front – "While juicy and thick set it has a good deal of fruit, spice and herbal information, both perfume and palate does dark cherry, choc-mint, sage leaf, blood orange – with fine, firm, al dente tannin in the vein of nerello mascalese or similar. It’s a brooding and deep red, chewy and potent but with levity on its side. Charming in the moodier frame." - Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)