Ranked #4 of 147 2012 Shiraz from McLaren Vale
96/100
5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Very deep, dark, dense red/purple/black hue. It smells of coconut, vanilla, toasty, charred oak, and graphite. The wine is very full-bodied, concentrated and dense but again, it's so young and firm, dense and unready it's difficult to evaluate. When you work the wine in the glass, dark chocolate and mocha as well as espresso coffee emerge, but the wine is still closed and tannic. Who can tell where it comes from or what grape it is? A formidable wine. Cellar it! There is amazing concentration and phenomenal tannin structure here. A truly decadent wine
Tasted: 28/03/2015
Drink: 2020 to 2042
97 Points James Halliday
Hand-picked, open-fermented, hand-plunged, 25% whole bunches, 75% whole berry, wild yeast fermentation, 15 months on lees in French oak (40% new). Full, deep crimson-purple; this is a shiraz with some of the accoutrements of cabernet sauvignon, but without any loss of its core identity; black fruits have great depth and tannin structure, the depth not greater than the length. Power with balance, and an unqualifiedly long future. 372 dozen made. Drink to 2052.
-. March, 2023