Halliday Wine Companion (99)

From old vines in five districts, fermented with submerged cap, matured in French hogsheads (32% new) for 15 months. Complex and rich from the first whiff through to the aftertaste, not wasting a single berry in this great vintage. So much power, such elegance.

Halliday Wine Companion (98)

A full-bodied wine of ultimate coherence and quality, the bouquet setting the signal for the palate to follow. Attention to detail is obvious, especially the handling of tannins and oak. The integration of these components with the blackcurrant fruit is faultless.

The Vintage Journal (98)

Deep crimson. Complex blackcurrant, blackberry, praline, roasted chestnut mocha, marzipan notes. Richly flavoured, round and smooth with beautiful pure blackcurrant, blackberry mocha espresso flavours, fine loose-knit grainy tannins and underlying roasted chestnut, toffee notes. Finishes chocolaty and long with a long life ahead.

Wine Advocate (95+)

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2013 Alte Reben Shiraz is opening out into a bold, pure, pepper and licorice-laced nose over a core of black cherries and crushed blueberries with a touch of dried herbs. Full, rich and yet with plenty of freshness, this is a wine with great concentration, nice ripe tannins and a tantalizing finish. Yum!

Wine Advocate (95)

Kaesler’s icon cuvee is their Shiraz Old Bastard, produced from a single vineyard planted in 1896, and aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. The 2004 is a big yet remarkably elegant, deep purple-colored Shiraz offering notes of blueberries, black raspberries, and toasty oak, a superb texture, admirable richness, and a long, heady finish. There is plenty of tannin lurking beneath the cascade of fruit, glycerin, and extract. While accessible, it is too young to drink at present, and is meant to keep for 2-3 decades. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2025+.

Vinous (96)

Dark purple. Powerful, smoke- and spice-accented aromas of dark fruit preserves, vanilla, incense and violet. Alluringly sweet and broad on the palate, offering deeply concentrated blueberry, cassis, floral pastille and vanilla flavors plus suggestions of five-spice powder and cola. The floral quality repeats emphatically on an impressively long, velvety finish that"s framed by smooth, harmonious tannins.

Wine Advocate (94)

Sourced from vines planted in 1899 and 1965, Kaesler's 2015 The Bogan Shiraz aged 15 months in 25% new oak. It's a full-bodied but balanced Shiraz, with big blueberry and blackberry flavors but also savory hints of wood, grilled meat and dried spices. Plush and almost creamy on the palate, it moves easily into a long, velvety finish that picks up hints of plum and licorice. Flattering now, it should still be going strong in a decade or more.

Greg Sherwood MW (96)

This certainly is a deep, broody exotic expression of Cabernet Sauvignon that is more reminiscent of a cool vintage Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon than anything from Bordeaux or the Cape. Opened and tasted over 4 to 5 hours, the wine hits its stride surprisingly quickly with plenty of perfumed purple flowers, violets, bruleed black berries, baked blueberry crumble, crème de cassis and a pleasing note of mocha and vanilla pod spice. Initial notes of kelp and maritime seashore salinity quickly give way to a more weighty, sensual melange of black berry compote nuances and hints of cherry kirsch liquor. While this wine certainly shows all the deft elegance and finesse we associate with the 2017 vintage, it also displays a certain extra gravitas, power and weight of fruit concentration combined with great poise, density and a seamlessly textured mineral graphite finish. This is a dark horse that will drink well on release and age deceptively well for 20+ years.

Vinous (95)

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with 7% Malbec and 6% Cabernet Franc and spent 22 months in seasoned French oak. It has a classy bouquet of expressive red berry fruit, cedar and light undergrowth aromas that leans toward the Left Bank. The palate is medium-bodied with great sapidity right from the start. The tannins are extremely fine here, and the finish fans out gloriously with just enough bite to tempt you back for another sip. This is an outstanding Cabernet from winemaker Alex Starey.

Wine Advocate (97)

The 2005 Shiraz “Attunga 1865” is sourced from ungrafted vines planted in the Clare Valley in 1865. It spent 25 months in 100% new French oak hogsheads and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Opaque purple/black, it reveals an ethereal bouquet of crushed rocks, acacia flowers, espresso, mocha, black cherry, and blackberry. This leads to a powerful, intense, yet elegant wine with a very long, seamless finish. This beautifully balanced effort will excite tasters over the next 25 years. Kilikanoon’s winemaker is the talented Kevin Mitchell. The house specialty is Shiraz but Mitchell does equally well with Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Grenache.

Decanter (98)

An historical wine, Vin de Constance has been re-established in the last few years as one of the world’s finest sweet wines. Dried Muscat grapes are aged for three years before bottling, in French and Hungarian casks with a touch of acacia wood. Citrus, orange zest, rosewater and spice notes leap out of the glass. The palate has a laser-like focus with massive sweetness perfectly balanced by acidity and a mineral finish. As impressive as Château d’Yquem (and considerably better value).

Tim Atkin MW (98)

Increasingly celebrated as one of the great sweet wines of the world, not just the Cape, Vin de Constance is a delight to taste and review. Slightly drier than the 205 release at 165 grams of sugar, it has more in common with the Loire or Tokaji than it does with Sauternes in terms of freshness and structure.

Tim Atkin MW (98)

"Lighter and lighter" is the motto at Klein Constantia these days, according to Matt Day. The latest, world-class release of Vin de Constance certainly doesn’t lack sweetness at 165 grams or even concentration, but it has a freshness that's reminiscent of Vouvray or Barsac. Subtly wooded in 50% new barrels, it unfurls layers of citrus, toast and tarte tatin, with a drizzle of honey and vivid acidity and palate length. Bravo!

Matthew Jukes (19.5++)

I am informed by the top man at Klein Constantia that the price will be the same as last year’s superb 2017 and all of the likely candidates in the UK are likely to hold stock. It will require a little effort on Google and you will see that a large number of wine merchants will list 2018 Vin de Constance and while the prices swing around like no other wine I know, at £60 or so, for a half litre, it certainly makes sense to me and when you consider the sheer quality of this vintage, it is a bargain for this celestial experience. Stock is likely to arrive in September 2021, but do feel free to register your interest with your preferred wine merchant now. Vintage reports suggest that the build-up to the 2018 harvest brought the highest summer rainfall of the last six years and, combined with some of the coldest night-time temperatures on record, the vines were granted a very long and very slow growing season. These conditions have imbued extreme delicacy of perfume and flavour and also staggering concentration and length in this wine. It also means that the 2018 vintage has otherworldly characteristics and I cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure. Light bunches and tiny Muscat de Frontignan berries underline just how unusual this vintage was and with a harvest that was a fortnight later than average and crops down by about 15% all of these facts make sense when you taste this ethereal wine. Aged for three years in a combination of 50% new French oak barrels, a small number of acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres, this is both a sensual and also sensitive wine. For a start, the colour is incredibly pale – think a young Sancerre! But the viscosity is amazing when you pour a glass because the liquid moves ever so slightly slower and more deliberately into the glass. The lights come on and the brain fires up immediately and it takes you by surprise just how quickly your olfactory system senses that you are in the presence of greatness. I was in a state of heightened anticipation, long before I raised the glass to my lips and the reward is exquisite. The perfume and palate combine in an astral haze of delight with orange blossom, fig, lemon verbena, wild honey and acacia notes caressing your senses. The texture is super-smooth, incredibly long and unnervingly gentle. It certainly possesses the longest finish I can remember on a Vin de Constance and I have, very fortunately, a tasted huge number of vintages of this wine. If you have never tasted this wine before, please start with this vintage – it will blow your mind. If you have and you are a fan, this is a critical purchase for your collection. I cannot wait to add this wine to my cellar later in the year.

Halliday Wine Companion (99)

This achieves another step up the quality ladder for Leeuwin Estate, seemingly impossible. There's been no change in the vinification, nor in the vineyard. The change is an increase in the intensity of the flavours, and hence their length and aftertaste. It's an extraordinary wine, among the greatest of Burgundy (and elsewhere in the world). Whatever you expect from its future development will be delivered.

The Western Australian (99)

Let's put it this way. This is the closest I have come to awarding a wine 100 points...Stellar wine from a stellar vintage. The remarkable this is that this is a wine 100 percent barrel fermented in new French oak barriques with regular lees stirring for 11 months - and it certainly doesn't taste excessive, or even slightly oak. It has such high-fidelity purity with complex seductive aromatics of vanilla bean and light oatmeal with a cutting minerality and spicy lift. But the palate, oh the palate. This is where things start to explode. Power, poise and persistence with a dry savouriness balancing the intense ripe fruit. It is such a long finish with an ever so slightly, charry finish completing a remarkable wine

Vinous (97)

The 2018 Estate Reserve Syrah contains 50% whole-bunch fruit and is aged in 500- and 700-liter barrels, 30% new. It has an extremely pure, slightly floral bouquet of bright blueberry and black currant fruit infused with scents of crushed iris petals and violets, almost Burgundian in style. The palate is extremely well balanced with perfectly pitched acidity and filigreed tannins. There is an unerring sense of weightlessness about this Syrah, which is one of the most precise Lismore reds I have encountered over several years of tasting. Absolutely stunning.

A connoisseur's delight, the Love Over Gold Menglers Hill Love Over Gold Shiraz 2014 is the epitome of opulence. This handcrafted, single-vineyard wine hails from the prestigious Menglers Hill, situated within the acclaimed South Australian wine region, Barossa Valley. It is the creation of the renaissance winemaker, Warrick Duthy, the impassioned force behind the boutique wine label, Love Over Gold.

The 2014 vintage encapsulates the vineyard's story with its exceptional purity and intensity. The grapes endured a growing season of dry, warm days and cool evenings, producing a wine enrobed in powerful dark fruit flavours, tempered with refined acidity and structured tannins. Nineteen months in French oak barrels imbued the Shiraz with complex layers of chocolate, vanilla, and spice, making each sip a revelation. The Love Over Gold Menglers Hill Love Over Gold Shiraz 2014 is undeniably an unforgettable imprint of time and place, a testament to the art of winemaking.

Halliday Wine Companion (96)

Still has good depth of colour, and the components - fruit, oak and tannins - have come together convincingly. The mouthfeel is totally delicious, seeming to create a line of juicy flavour that grows as it travels along the mouth, peaking as it reaches the back-palate.

Halliday Wine Companion (97)

Distinctly varietal nose of vibrant blackberry and dark chocolate fruits, supported by judicious use of classy French oak. The Palate is classically structured , full bodied Cabernet, with silky cassis and dark chocolate fruit finishing with fine dry chamois tannins of tremendous length.

Wine Advocate (94)

Mollydooker's 2018 Carnival of Love Shiraz is more red-fruited and structured than I expected, given the wine's stated 16% alcohol. Raspberries and cedar mark the nose, with hints of chocolate, espresso and baking spices. In the mouth, it's full-bodied, dense and powerful, with ripe but firm tannins supporting the bright berry flavors, then easing into a long, velvety and mouthwatering finish. It should drink well for around a decade, but if you're shy of tannins, you may want to wait another year or two before opening.

Everything you'd expect from a Merlot presented by Mollydooker. Big, voluptuous and uncompromising, yes; but it does maintain varietal correctness. Showing Deep red and black fruit mingled with some cocoa powder and spicy clove elements. Delicious.

Wine Advocate (91)

Mollydooker's 2018 The Boxer Shiraz delivers what fans of this producer have come to expect: huge fruit, plenty of ripeness, tasty oak and oodles of flavor. Cedar, chocolate and mint accent cola, plum and berry fruit on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is round, supple and expansive. It's creamy-ripe, yet the wine ends silky and mouthwatering.

Wine Advocate (95)

The only one of the Mollydooker wines that even hints at needing some bottle age is the 2016 Velvet Glove Shiraz. Hints of hay or alfalfa mark the nose, along with huge raspberry and blueberry fruit. It's full-bodied, rich and tannic on the palate, picking up hints of chocolate and raisin on the long finish. I wouldn't suggest cellaring it too long, in case the dried-fruit notes come too much to the fore.

Halliday Wine Companion (99)

Rare is in a class of its own. Extraordinarily complex, taking on umami complexity, dark chocolate studded with salt flakes, raisins soaked in molasses and more besides. Rich and sweet, but definitely not burdened by all that because it has life, a lemony acidity and a freshness throughout.

Wine Advocate (97)

Concentrated, silky and lingering, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is elegant and fine with salted licorice, ripe raspberry, dark chocolate and exotic spice. It's a beautiful wine that continues the legacy of Moss Wood Cabernets, albeit with a slightly softer, more lilting voice. Age-worthy in the supreme.

Halliday Wine Companion (99)

Stands proudly at the head of the Mount Mary portfolio. A blend of 44% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 16% cabernet franc and 5% each of malbec and petit verdot, each variety handled according to its structure. Open/static fermenters, wood/stainless steel, 10-14 days on skins, 35% new oak from a range of coopers and forests, 16-20 months in barrel. Mesmerisingly silky, with a kaleidoscope of fruit and secondary flavours.

Halliday Wine Companion (99)

'Arguably, one of the greatest red vintages in living memory', says Mount Pleasant. The flagship wine. Destemmed and crushed, short cold soak, open-fermented, matured in large format French oak (30% new) for 18 months. Has the gently throbbing power of a Rolls Royce; superb, deep crimson-purple hue, itself rare in the Hunter Valley. Countless layers of black fruits have absorbed the oak and put the undoubted tannins into limbo land. O'Shea would have died a happy man had this been his last wine. Dissecting it now is an academic exercise at best, so great is its future. This is as close to a 100-year potential as you are ever likely to find.

Tim Atkin MW (95)

Chenin Blanc is the marquee variety here, with support from 26% Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Semillon Gris, Viura and Verdelho, most of which is sourced from 37 to 70-year-old vines. Lemon, lime and wet stone flavours with some phenolic grip and remarkable palate length.

Greg Sherwood MW (95)

Bottled after 12 months, this is a very, very pretty vintage with lower yields but also beautiful fruit purity, precision and a wonderful fruit – acid balance. The aromatics are ripe, succulent and opulent showing honeysuckle, white blossom, lemon cordial, dried herbs and lovely white peach and pineapple pastille notes. Nevertheless, the stand out feature on the palate is undoubtedly the textural sophistication, harmony and chalky minerality combined with super tangy acids bursting with lemon rock candy, white peach and crystalline citrus flavours. Simply an incredible intensity with a harmoniously weightless balance combined with a long, piercing finish. This is definitely a noticeable step up on previous vintages and an incredible achievement for the Mullineuxs! Drink now to 2034+.