2022 Holy Grail Seppeltsfield Shiraz

COLOUR | Deep black in colour with a cherry red hue.

AROMA | A complex bouquet of elderberry, fig, tar, charcuterie, German sausage, cardamon, curry spice, roses & blueberry.

PALATE | This is a bold wine right from the start, bursting with concentrated, voluptuous black fruit that’s both energetic and powerful. As with all the top vintages from Holy Grail, it has the remarkable ability to transition into a softer, more supple expression. With a fresh, lingering finish that’s both soft and vibrant. The tannins are fine-grained and stony, with a smooth, lingering edge that reverberates across the palate, adding exceptional length that slowly fades into the late palate. Along the way, there’s a delightful mix of dried meat, liquorice, and cherry ripe notes that deepen the complexity. This wine is built for aging, and while it shows beautifully now, in 8 to 10 years the reward will be well worth the wait, patience is key.

After our second La Niña year in a row, the vineyards received an above average winter rainfall, we then progressed into a very mild spring and an equally mild summer with only one day recorded over 40°C. Due to slightly later flowering, the vines were set up to mature at a slower than usual pace, this put the start of vintage back around 3 weeks on average, these mild ripening conditions allowed for slower than usual favour development, this matched with lower yield across the board has resulted in another quality harvest.

WINEMAKING | Several small parcels from the Holy Grail vineyard were picked on the 5th of April. Upon arriving at our Marananga winery they were de-stemmed into 5T stainless steel open-top fermentors. Gently pumped over 2-3 times daily, these parcels were pressed after an average time on skins of 10 days. All free run and pressings were combined in tank and then racked off to barrel for malolatic fermantation. The wine was bottled with minimum fining and no filtration.

MATURATION | Aged for 18 months in 1-4 year old French oak hogsheads. 5 barrels produced, bottled in November the following vintage.

CLOSURE | Diam Cork
VOLUME | 750ml
VARIETAL | Shiraz
ALCOHOL (% vol.) | 14.5%
SUB-REGION | Seppeltsfield
VINE AGE | 8-22 years
ALTITUDE | 250m
AVERAGE RAINFALL | 450-500mm
SOIL TYPE | Predominantly rich red/brown clay.

Vintage Journal
98 points
Andrew Caillard MW
Published 2025

"Deep crimson. Classical blackberry dark chocolate aromas
with chinotto, bush garrigue notes. Beautifully balanced and evocative wine with pure blackberry chinotto, dark chocolate, hint ginger flavours, fine loose knit velvety textures and beautifully integrated mocha/vanilla notes. Finishes chocolaty firm and bittersweet with superb mineral length."