The 2019 Shiraz Ironheart shows immense color, power and density as it ripples with licorice, chocolate and blackberry fruits with a distinctive peaty edge. Robust and flavorsome, it perfectly walks a tightrope between power and subtlety, taking on a more tarry and chocolatey personality through the extremely long finish. Punctuated by a firm core of muscular tannins, this wine is built to deliver for the long haul.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard is sourced from vines planted in 1975, meaning some of the oldest Pinot vines in the Russian River. Exotic Martini clone aromatics give this mid-weight, wonderfully translucent Pinot tons of character. The Arrendell is not an obvious wine, but rather a Pinot built on understated nuance and character. Sweet red
berries, mint, cedar and crushed flowers open effortlessly.

The 2017 Cabernet Franc Arcanum is a brooding and expressive wine made entirely from Cabernet Franc. Musky aromas of graphite, cassis, cigar box, sage, and incense evolve in the glass. Weightless and full, it has ripe tannins and a refined arch of black fruit, mocha, and earth. Its ripeness is balanced with fresh acidity and delicate salinity. Drink 2024-2044.

Sublime. What a gorgeous Grenache! Prettiness and class all in one package. Sourced from the certified organic and biodynamic block adjacent to the famed High Sands, the vines were planted in 1946. Fermented in ceramic eggs and on skins for 176 days, this is Grenache purity at its best. Glorious fruit, sizzling weight, it's just marvelously executed. Easily my favourite Grenache in the Yangarra Estate range, juicy raspberries run riot with flashes of blueberries. Superfine exotic spices frame the edges and push long to a persistent and ever moreish finish. So bright and vibrant in the glass, it feels so luxurious with its silky touch. The High Sands is the flagship of the range but I'd easily take three of these to one of those. Just brilliant! Drink to eight years.

Pale colour. Lemon curd, grapefruit, hint graphite waxy aromas. Well concentrated grapefruit hint nectarine pear skin flavours, supple slinky / al dente textures, lovely mid-palate richness and fresh long cutting acidity. Very refreshing and complex – an amazing wine. Drink now – 2030.

Very deep, dark, saturated red/purple colour; the bouquet is savoury, walnutty and dried-bayleaf scented. The wine is very full-bodied, super-ripe and almost opulent in its proportions. It has density and generous extract, licorice hints and spicy nuances. The finish rolls on and on. A big, bold, solid wine, which will live for decades. Outstanding and loaded with character. (25% whole bunches; 40% new oak; 482 dozen made. Grown on ironstone and sand.

I wasn’t any kind of fan of the 2013 release, but I am of this 2014. It’s biodynamically grown, it sees 25% whole bunches, it’s cold soaked and then fermented wild in open vats before seeing all French oak, 40% new. It’s not only a vineyard selection but a barrel selection; the best barrels of the most distinctive vineyard, kind of thing. 5784 bottles made.
If you’re going to make a powerful statement then give it the scaffolding to endure. This is a McLaren Vale shiraz to reckon with. It’s inky with blackberried fruit flavour, it’s infused with saltbush, it’s sheeted with cedary oak and for all its luxury polish it roars Get Out Of My Way, I’m On The Way To The Future. This is a ship with long anchors of tannin. Go on a fitness kick, eat healthy, do your best to be around in 20 years. This is a shiraz for the ages.

An amazingly intense wine with pure blackberry aromas. Although the wine is highly concentrated, the acidity gives definition, and the fine tannins frame the palate perfectly. Oak introduces a subtle amount of savoury nuttiness. It is a wine of power and grace that will age long into the future.

50% fills a 675l ceramic egg, foot-trodden and fermented on skins, remaining there for 120 days before pressing; the other 50% is pressed into a second ceramic egg and fermented off skins. The fresh varietal fruit is held in a distinct chalky/pithy embrace, the length and balance faultless. The fascinating question is how long it will live. 68 dozen made

Using two ceramic egg vessels, half the fruit is fermented on skins for 160 days in one, the other half with juice only. The final outcome a 60/40% blend respectively. What a wine. Complex yet refined, notes of preserved ginger, herbal tea, honey comb and clotted cream with neat phenolics and gossamer-like acidity.

Open-fermented, hand-plunged, 25% whole bunches, cold soak, wild yeast, on lees, 15 months in French oak (15% new), barrel selection. Bright colour introduces a wine that skips along a sunlit path, the black cherry fruit with flashes of chocolate, oak and tannins coming and going, here one moment, gone the next, then back again. 297 dozen made.

Destemmed and mechanically berry-sorted, 50% crushed, tipped into two 675l ceramic eggs. Fermentation occurs in the eggs; remains on skins for 120 days post-fermentation, the pressings not used. The colour is clear and bright; a perfumed bouquet, then a palate brimming with bright red fruits supported by a spider web of ultra-fine tannins. It is the perfume that is so extraordinary. 94 dozen made.

A name change: goodbye Small Pot Ceramic Egg, hello Ovitelli, sounds classier. Still made in (two) ceramic egg vessels, destemmed fruit, 50% crushed and on skins for 140 days. The heady aromatics greet and promise more good things to come. superfine acidity, the pure line of fruit tannin, the energy and joy in this wine, quite profound.

Medium ruby, the 2020 Pinot Noir Machado is scented of pomegranate and blueberry with tones of aniseed, prosciutto, bergamot and cracked pepper. The medium-bodied palate is grainy and fresh with concentrated fruits and lots of layers across the finish. It feels a bit wound and fruit-forward at this early stage and will benefit from a few more years in bottle.

The 2020 Pinot Noir Hapgood is especially elegant this vintage. Pale ruby-purple, it features red cherries, blood orange, lavender, tea leaves and prosciutto on the nose. Light-bodied, fresh and energetic, the palate offers loads of layers and powdery tannins, finishing long and detailed. It may have more to give with another 2-3 years in bottle.

The 2020 Chardonnay Machado opens slowly to pretty notes of matchstick and lime leaves and needs a bit of aeration to give up nuances of lemongrass, saline, apricot and chalk. The palate is bursting with concentrated, ripe citrus fruits and offers mouthwatering acidity that calls you back to the glass again and again. It has a streak of herbal exoticism that adds to its appeal, a bit of anchoring textural grip and a long, evolving finish.

White grapefruit, pears, flint, slate and toasted almonds on the nose. So flavorful and vibrant, with sharp acidity and a creamy, compact palate. Medium to full body. Long, flinty and intense. Drink now or hold.

Attractive aromas of cherries and strawberries with dried herbs, rose petals and dried blood orange. Medium-bodied with polished texture and ultra fine tannins. It’s so lively and electrified with a pure and ripe fruit character that offers an array of cocoa-dusted strawberries and savory undertones. It’s spicy and long. Delicious. Drink or hold.

Blended with 21% Merlot, this wine shows lots of varietal character, nuanced in red fruit, toasted oak and compelling baking spice. Elegant throughout, it conveys power within the context of sophisticated complexity and mannered tannins. Plenty of structure allows the wine to age further. Enjoy best from 2029–2039.

Sourced from a propitiously sited single plot, where sand meets ironstone. Sorted abstemiously following hand picking. Wild fermented on skins for 16 days. Élévage in a combination of new and older French puncheons, in addition to a 25L foudre following a barrel cull and blending. Density and pliancy, the calling cards. All offset by the juiciest red cherry-skinned tannins flecked with violet, blueberry, rose petal and spice, directing the fray. Tactile barely describes this, so moreish and conducive to the next glass, as it draws the saliva in preparation.

Very deep, dark, dense red/purple/black hue. It smells of coconut, vanilla, toasty, charred oak, and graphite. The wine is very full-bodied, concentrated and dense but again, it's so young and firm, dense and unready it's difficult to evaluate. When you work the wine in the glass, dark chocolate and mocha as well as espresso coffee emerge, but the wine is still closed and tannic. Who can tell where it comes from or what grape it is? A formidable wine. Cellar it! There is amazing concentration and phenomenal tannin structure here. A truly decadent wine.

This has a complex and expressive nose of iodine, dried thyme, blackberry fruit, tar, cloves and crushed stones. Beautifully framed, with sleek and firm tannins providing an elegant support to the dark fruit and minerals. Slowly unwinds. From biodynamically grown grapes. Better from 2024. Screw cap.

A linear and tight grenache with long and very intense fruit and tannins. Blackberry, dark cocoa powder and dusty. Chewy and very fine tannined. Excellent length and power. Needs three or four years to come around. From biodynamically grown grapes. Best after 2024.

More dark plum fruit and purple flowers here with a deep minerality of crushed stones, clay and tea leaves. It’s medium-bodied and well structured with firm, tightly formed tannins. Mineral freshness. Dips in and out of a deep, dark and brooding character. Still tight but round textured and then chewy at the end. Grenache from vines planted in 1946. Fermented and remains on skins for 170 days, with total maturation in ceramic eggs for 11 months. From biodynamically grown grapes. Try after 2023. Screw cap.

Gorgeous nose of hazelnuts, black cherries, blackberries, mocha and bay leaves. Hints of spearmint. Seamlessly integrated, with a concentrated and delicious core of dark fruit, herbs and seductive spice. Muscular, fleshy tannins. Showing beautiful cabernet character with a long life ahead. 57% cabernet sauvignon and 43% shiraz. Drink or hold. Screw cap.