The Beauty and Balance of Australian Shiraz, Plus the Great White Harvest: Weekly Tasting Report (Oct 5-11)

We must admit that we are slightly awestruck with the beauty and balance of the best shiraz, or syrah, of Australia as we continue our journey across the continent and rate close to 2,000 wines. We wish that all of you could taste and drink the incredible shiraz wines from the likes of The Standish Wine Company, Tyrrell's, Sami-Odi, Torbreck, Clarendon Hills, Jasper Hill and Rockford, among others.

It’s all about the balance and transparency of these reds, as well as the distinctive character that communicates where they are from. They have a uniqueness in both their aromas and flavors that define the syrah in a different way compared with even the best of France, such as Hermitage or Cote Rotie. Their purity of fruit and depth of earth and terroir give them a wonderful aroma and mouthfeel. They are agile and almost weightless in their definition and personality. We hope that more people outside of Australia find the chance to drink some of these wines.

And the relaxed and open persona of some of the best winemakers in the country is equally attractive. “I just want to make my wines delicious,” said owner and winemaker Fraser McKinley of Sami-Odi in Barossa. “I am not trying to make wines in a particular style or anything else.”

His tiny winery, which is just on the outskirts of the sleepy farm town of Angaston, is literally a wooden garage next to his house where the relocated New Zealander does all the work by hand himself with “nothing that plugs into the wall,” as he put it. He has a new hillside vineyard of about three acres above his wooden farmhouse, and he also buys grapes from famous growers who own some of the oldest vines in the valley planted back in the late 1890s. It’s people and wines like these that make us want to drink great Australian wines, and also want us to come back and see them.

The semillons in this report from Tyrrell’s in the Hunter Valley are equally compelling, with Chris Tyrrell saying that the 2022 vintage may be one of his best ever for the acid-driven grape. His wines’ energy and depth of fruit and minerality are really fantastic, and they mostly come from vineyards dating back to the early 20^th century.

“It is fantastic for semillon,” he said during a Zoom call we had while I was in Barossa, as we couldn’t get to Hunters Valley this trip. “Everyone is saying it’s a great white harvest. They have good flavors and really low pH. It has such a nice balance.”

READ MORE PENFOLDS 2021: SHIRAZ SPARKLES AND SUPERBLENDS FIND THEIR MARK

The same could be said for dry riesling during our tastings over the last two weeks. I was happy to be tasting with Senior Editor Stuart Pigott, who as most of you know is one of the world’s experts on the grape.

He loves finding so many great dry rieslings during his wine excursions, and his tastings of white wines from South Australia uncovered more than a few. “Many people are still not familiar with these wines, or the incredible value for money many of them offer,“ Stuart said. On the latter point, few wines can top the Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling 2022, which is vibrant, expressive and concentrated. It is distributed right around Planet Wine.

The wine Stuart rated the highest this week, though, was the Grosset Riesling Clare Valley Polish Hill 2022. “It has a complexity and intense minerality that puts it in the first league globally,“ Stuart commented. It’s also a rare example of a biodynamic Australian producer that we have encountered.

A number of wines were hot on the heels of the Grosset riesling, most notably the incredibly elegant and subtle Mitchell Riesling Clare Valley Watervale 2022.

Stuart also tasted dry whites from Victoria, where at the other end of the taste spectrum he found the exceptionally muscular and structured Jasper Hill Riesling Heathcote Georgia’s Paddock 2022, which Stuart said “has the stature of a top Alsace wine.”

Stuart is currently judging the Clare Valley Wine Show in order to dig deeper into one region that's very focused on riesling. “Today I tasted more than 50 Clare Valley dry rieslings from the 2022 vintage, and this is clearly an outstanding vintage for the category, though a few wines are a bit tart and hard,” he said earlier this week. “I love the expressive aromatics and clarity of the wines.”

READ MORE: TOP 100 AUSTRALIA WINES 2021

2022 in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales was a year with moderate heat and good rainfall, leaving most producers satisfied with the overall results. "I spoke to a bunch of winemakers, and all of them seem very pleased with the 2022 wines across all the important categories, so we really look forward to tasting a wide range of these wines next year," Stuart said.

Over in Hong Kong, Senior Editor Zekun Shuai is, among other things, pushing on with his review of current releases from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in Southern France. Top scores so far are divided evenly between reds and whites, with two whites – the Domaine de L’Edre Côtes du Roussillon Carrément Blanc 2021 and Domaine Modat Côtes Catalanes Les Lucioles 2021 – heading the board. If you’re looking for a taste of Southern France at a reasonable price, keep an eye out for the wines currently coming out of the region.

James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.