Great year for reds in the Hunter. Deep red with blackberry and other dark berries on the nose and palate. Full-flavoured and intense with big tannin finish. Just into its drinking window but will cellar well for at least 10 years.

A wet, cold year with resulting wines being lighter in colour and flavour. This wine is ready to drink now. Red berry fruit and spice shows through with a soft easy finish. Great drinking with food as it will complement nearly any type of meat or fish.

Scored 93/100 by Campell Mattinson of The Wine Front.

“Light in colour and not especially deep but there’s an excellent array of flavour and structurally it’s tip top. In short it’s ripe, complex and interesting, its flavours of mint, cherry, deli meat and violets licked about the edges by anise and salty earth-like notes. Tannin ties a neat bow about it all. It was a difficult vintage but you’d never guess it; this is impeccable.”

Scored 94/100 by Gary Walsh of The Wine Front:

“Deep boysenberry and blackberry fruit, some pepper and spice, classic Hunter earthiness too, and a touch of nutty cedar oak. Medium-bodied, earthy tannin and flavour to match, a pleasing granularity to it, balanced acidity though firm, hazelnut and chocolate, a smattering of dried herb and spice through a nice and accurate finish. This is very good. A new wine for me, and I have to say it’s almost entirely pleasing.”

Scored 92/100 by The Wine Front:

“Distinctly nutty in the aromatic department, and I’m thinking choc-hazelnut or panforte in particular, along with blackberry, some biscuit spice, and subtle earthiness. Medium-bodied, rich in flavour, balanced acidity, almost a slick feel to the texture, dark and glacé cherry in the aftertaste. Nice wine here, though kind of specific in its flavour profile.”

Scored 93/100 by Gary Walsh of The Wine Front:

“Classic Hunter Shiraz, albeit set to a warmer more generous frame. Blackberry, grilled nuts, mint and dark chocolate, with an earthy bass. Medium-bodied, but dense and full in flavour, with a panforte richness and spice, ripe sooty tannin, a little floral perfume submerged, ripe and chewy, hazelnuts with a blackberry and dark cocoa finish of excellent length. Lovely wine. Quite powerful, though doesn’t lose its essential Hunter Valley Shiraz charm.”