2020 Ares Shiraz

COLOUR | This wine pours like a deep, black elixir from the bottle.

AROMA | A tight bouquet on opening with mint, cherry, liquorice, and earth notes slowly appearing, backed by blood plum, icing sugar, raspberry conserve and dried herbs.

PALATE | In its youth the wine is not overly giving and is firmly built for the long haul. Rich, powerful and silky in length is the best way to describe the palate, with driving black fruits and layers of beautifully integrated compressed power. I like the energy here the most, the mouthfeel has wonderful tension, and the tannins are round, soft and silky.

Overall, this is quintessential Barossa Shiraz and shows what can be achieved with the best fruit from the Western Ranges. Such depth, character, and penetrating length will require a few more years in the cellar, this wine is built with a long life ahead and will show its best with another 10 or 20 years of bottle age.

The 2020 vintage faced severe drought, with the Barossa Valley experiencing its driest winter since 1912. Despite low yields, innovative water-saving measures, including Sap Flow monitoring, helped manage resources. A hot January was followed by ideal ripening conditions in February and March. Picking was challenging due to variability across vineyards, requiring close monitoring. The Holy Grail vineyard delivered 132 tonnes of high-quality fruit, and improvements in winemaking processes under new Chief Winemaker Richard Langford led to excellent juice quality. Though yields were down over 50%, 2020 is remembered as one of the best vintages in terms of wine quality.

CLOSURE | DIAM Cork
VOLUME | 750ml
VARIETAL | Shiraz
REGION | Barossa Valley
ALCOHOL (% vol.) | 14.5%