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Wine Reviews

7 Exciting Shiraz To Include In Your Cellars

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18/09/2020 A cellar stocked with award-winning Shiraz sounds good? Here's what leading sommeliers are recommending.

Shiraz, also known as Syrah - is a well known red wine. Though the spiritual home of this red grape is France, Shiraz has been found worldwide to great success. Shiraz expresses itself differently depending on the climate, soil, and regional style, though certain characteristics remain the same.

Shiraz/Syrah is typically bold & full-bodied, has aromatic notes of smoke, black fruit, and pepper spice. Stylistically, it can be round and fruity, or dense and tannic. Whatever the name, Syrah/Shiraz offers a style for everyone.

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Fun Fact - Shiraz is considered to be one of the 'healthiest' wine varietals. That is because it has a high dose of antioxidants that are believed to help with stress, weight loss, & prevent heart disease - when consumed in moderation.

Here we bring you 7 exciting Shiraz To Include In Your Cellars

2018 E.B's The Squire Clare Shiraz

2018 E.B's The Squire Clare Shiraz by Kirrihill Wines from Australia is bold, inky mahogany red in color. This wine is intensely aromatic, with powerful notes of dark roasted coffee, toasted almonds, and dried fruits. The aromas of spice from both fruit and oak entice you, followed by dark berries and a hint of vanilla/smoke and char. Abundant fine tannin is interwoven and meshed with the core of sweet concentrated fruit introduces you to the multilayered flavors and textures. The palate is plush and rich with char and spice flavors derived from extended oak barrel maturation. Abundant tannins add structure and length to the concentrated fruit core. 2018 E.B's The Squire Clare Shiraz comes with 14.9% ABV and has a cellar potential of 20-30 years.

2018 E.B's The Squire Clare Shiraz won a Double Gold along with “Wine Of The Year By Varietal,” “Wine Of The Year By Country,” at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

96 Points

2017 Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz

2017 Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz by Sidewood Estate from Australia is complex and elegant. Vibrant purple, crimson in color, this wine comes with a glorious nose of red forest berries. It has the flavor of dark plum, blackberries, and mulberries, with touches of white pepper and allspice. It has lifted aromas of rich dark fruits, violets, and toasted cinnamon and displays a luscious palate of blackcurrants and fresh dates and a long lingering finish with hints of liquorice and cocoa bean. Careful cellaring for eight to ten years will benefit the 2017 Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz greatly.

While showing an abundance of fruit flavors, 2017 Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz remains brooding with graceful elegance and poise, notes of dark chocolate and licorice come forward during its luscious finish.

2017 Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

94 Points

2015 Ladies who Shoot their Lunch

2015 Ladies who Shoot their Lunch by Fowles Wine USA Inc from Australia is made from grapes grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides in the vineyard. This wine is deep crimson in color with hints of purple at the rim. On the nose, intense lifted aromas of ripe red berries play with notes of violet, pepper, and dark chocolate. The palate is full-bodied with complex forest fruits, spice, and velvety tannins leading to an elegant, long finish.

Fowles Wine is a family-owned winery based in the cool climate wine region of the Strathbogie Ranges, Victoria, Australia. Perched on an ancient granite plateau 130 kilometers north of Melbourne, they are the first foothills of the Great Diving Range. 2015 Ladies who Shoot their Lunch is fermented with wild ambient yeast in 150-year-old English casks. It's beautifully made and reminds us of St Joseph with its pure black fruit flavors.

2015 Ladies who Shoot their Lunch won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

93 Points

2017 Calendes

2017 Calendes by Ferraton Pere & Fils from France offers hints of black olive, blackberry, liquorice, and garrigue. A lovely and generous palate combined to a tight backbone. This wine comes with 13.5% ABV. The Ferraton are winemakers from one generation to the next. This estate overseen by la Maison Chapoutier was converted to biodynamic winegrowing and never ceases to impress. 

2017 Calendes won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

93 Points

2018 Dromana Estate Syrah

2018 Dromana Estate Syrah by Dromana Estate- Weeping Elm Wines from Australia has dark fruit, spice, and black pepper on the nose with a juicy yet savory palate. With 13.6% ABV, great length and acidity enable this wine to match perfectly with gamey meat dishes or cheese.

2018 Dromana Estate Syrah is handpicked and destemmed, left on skins to ferment for four weeks then pressed to old French oak hogsheads. This is a perfect example of a cool climate Shiraz.
 
The Dromana Estate range is the flagship label. This label highlights the Mornington Peninsula’s extended, gradual ripening season that is ideal for producing award-winning wines from classic, cool-climate varietals. The fruit is estate grown and hand-harvested to ensure that grapes entering the winery are of the highest quality.

2018 Dromana Estate Syrah won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

92 Points

Glaetzer Bishop

Glaetzer Bishop by Vino Logics from Australia comes with 13% ABV. Ripe, rich, concentrated, and supremely complex, the Glaetzer Bishop is the wine for all those full-bodied red wine lovers out there. On the nose, this wine has ripe liqueur cherries notes which competes for attention with vanilla, mocha, and coffee aromas. On the palate, Glaetzer Bishop is full of sweet berry fruit flavor and a soft, luscious finish that seems to persist for an age. While exuberant and lively when young, the Glaetzer Bishop is known to handle medium-term cellaring extremely well and reward any with the patience.

Glaetzer Bishop won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020.

92 Points

2017 Avantis Estate Syrah 

2017 Avantis Estate Syrah by AVANTIS ESTATE WINERY from Greece is the wine that introduced ‘APOSTOLOS MOUNTRICHAS’ to the wine-loving public. It is considered the ‘BEST VALUE FOR MONEY’ & one of the best samples of chronic research & quality in Greek winemaking. 

2017 Avantis Estate Syrah has deep ruby color & intricate bouquet. It has aromas of spices, pepper, cinnamon, tobacco, framed by plenty of black fruit (plum, raspberry), baked fruit jam with hints of vanilla. On the palate, 2017 Avantis Estate Syrah is rich, spicy, exuberant with mature noticeable tannins, and a round long aftertaste. It is medium-bodied with soft, juicy bramble fruits, a hint of spice, and a gentle, succulent finish.

Avantis Estate Syrah won a Gold medal at the Sommeliers Choice Awards held on Aug 12, 2020. 

90 Points

A unique opportunity to present your wines to America's top sommeliers. The wine scores are benchmarked for on-premise channels by top sommeliers, master sommeliers, wine directors and restaurant wine buyers. Submission deadline is April 30, 2024.