2022 Secret Block Ebenezer Shiraz

COLOUR | Deep layered purple to black

AROMA | The lovely floral notes of mint, sarsparilla, liquorice, sultry dark fruit, leather, vanilla bean, maraschino liqueur, cocoa, violets, cola and fresh black berry.

PALATE | The wine is rich, powerful, and brooding, with an alluring density of fruit on the palate. It opens with deep, ripe plum, blackcurrant, and hints of liquorice. Chalky feeling tannin emerges, bringing a ferocious yet refined texture that adds structure and complexity. There’s a subtle undercurrent of white pepper and dried leather, giving the wine a distinct old-world feel, yet with the vibrant fruit intensity of the Barossa Valley. This is a wine that invites contemplation, drawing you in with its elegance and evolving layers. It balances power and finesse, with all its components in perfect harmony—a bold Shiraz that commands attention.

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 | One small parcel from this single block was picked on the 30th of March. Crushed and de-stemmed into a single 5-tonne open top fermenter. The time spent on skins was 10 days with 2-3 pump overs daily. All free run and pressings were combined in tank and after 24 hours the wine was then racked off gross lees to barrel, where malolactic fermentation occurred. The wine was bottled with minimum fining and no filtration.

MATURATION | 18 months in up to 50% new French oak and 2/3 year old hogsheads. 3 barrels bottled in November the following vintage.

CLOSURE | Diam Cork
VOLUME | 750ml
VARIETAL | Shiraz
ALCOHOL (% vol.) | 14.2%
REGION | Barossa Valley
SUB-REGION | Moppa Hills
VINE AGE | 23 years
ALTITUDE | 335m
AVERAGE RAINFALL | 450mm
SOIL | Deep grey-red loam containing coarse quartz and ironstone gravel over clay.

Vinous
96 points
Angus Hughson
Published April 2025

"This currently quite closed 2022 Shiraz Secret Block, a single vineyard from Moppa Hills, is robust with dense and ripe aromas of plum skin and chocolate with a touch of eucalypt and a rich bed of new oak. Quite muscular and firm, tannins ripe and generous followed by a wall of flavor of powerful and tightly formed flavor. Excellent underlying tension over a long, controlled coal fire finish bodes well for the future.”