RED WINE

2020 is the first release of this premium pinot. Downer has worked closely with three different vineyards all on the Western ridge on predominantly east-facing slopes. One vineyard that Downer has been taking fruit from since 2016 has consistently stood out. 85% of The Apollo 2020 comes from this site, located in Piccadilly just opposite the Mt Lofty Botanic Garden. The understudy source is in Ashton, and contributes more underfloor, forest notes to offset the Piccadilly vineyard's red-fruited intensity.

On the nose this is brimming with aromatics that lure you in- dark spiced black cherries, maraschino cherries, wet earth and rosemary. The core is compact with great intensity and depth that slowly unfurls with a little air. A beautiful interplay of savoury earth and fresh fruit is apparent. Its spine of fine silky tannins holds a lovely line of tension in its youth. This is so tightly wound at the moment, and promises a bounty of treasures if you can put it away for a few years. A powerhouse pinot that is so light on its feet. GABRIELLE POY, PWS

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

It’s from such an unusual/cold/late season that shiraz was picked four weeks later than average.

It’s a peppery, twiggy, bunchy shiraz. It smells, feels and tastes like the result of a cool season. This wine will split drinkers down the middle. It’s smoky, herbal, berried, smooth-skinned and stringy at once. It both walks the tightrope and is one. There are menthol, alpine herb, walnut and peppercorn characters here in abundance. There are also substantial ropes of well-placed tannin. It’s a medium-bodied wine with a great deal to say. CAMMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

What can we say about this wonderful producer? Nothing that hasn't already been said. The consistency and quality is really quite astonishing and with Adama Wadawitz at the winemaking helm this a trend that will continue its upward trajectory. Their secret has been to continually improve and tweak the operations and that shows in every bottle. One of Australia's great estates. PWS

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

This little gem comes from a mate and ex-employee Matt Keoghan and sourced from his family property in the Adelaide Hills. The family have been in the business for ages so know what they are doing when it comes to putting out quality fruit and this certainly delivers.

This sees about 40% whole bunch and ten months in old oak with no additions and just a touch of sulphur at bottling.  It's the kind of syrah we love, elegant in style that ties in pretty, violet florals, dark berry and mulberry fruit with a dash of green herbs and olive. Judicial oak frames the sweet fruits nicely, Succulent and soft but doesn't shy away from being a little bit serious too.

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

A very unique site tucked away between thatches of native forest and fringed by other old vine properties. The DC Block vines are 47 years old. There's 20% new oak employed here. A formidable and important project from Steve Pannell. The 2019 shiraz of McLaren Vale have a bit more dry reddiness as a thing, and there's some of that here, but the tannin and potency surpasses that.
It's highly perfumed, so rich and ripe, inky plummy fruit characters, brined black olive and a strong overlay of cedar, mahogany and clove. The palate is similarly generous and rich, plush and impenetrable, tightens on train tracks of cedary, firm and long ribbons of tannin and overall it feels succulent despite the heft and concentration. Formidable wine here, a quibble on how oak interplays in dryness with dryer spectrum fruit characters, but there's a hugely impressive wine in the glass regardless. MIKE BENNIE, winefront.com

The old property is serviced with bio-char and layers in a lot of regenerative agriculture that aims to reintroduce lots of native species into the farm. The GT block is 31 year old vines grafted from gewurztraminer to shiraz, 'GT stands for grafted or gewurztraminer', says Steve Pannell in his press release, but I go to famed mid-to-late 90s DJ and music producer, GrooveTerminator, when I see the initials. Almost a third is whole bunch fermented here, and 20% new oak used. Also, this is beautiful drinking right now.
There's a freshness and lift to the wine despite the concentration and layering of dark fruit, woody spice and general inkiness. The character of gewurz seems omnipresent despite no gewurz here - it's floral and pretty shiraz, flirty and quite notably silky, more soft in the shiraz spectrum and red fruited inflections chime in with plum and dark, forest berry fruits. A lick of cola and char here but the wine floats and swishes on velvety tannins and finishes extremely long and fine. MIKE BENNIE, winefront.com

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

This is the 2nd release of the 'Viceroy' Syrah for young winemaker Matt Keoghan who has worked extensively locally and abroad to try and hone in his craft from places such as Hermitage, Barolo and ChateauNeuf Du Pape.

The vineyard from which these wines are made from are on the GI border of Mclarenvale (Clarendon) and Adelaide Hills from the Wind River Vineyard which is family owned and farmed. The soils are Buck Shot ironstones and quartz through Sandy loams on a light orange and red clay base. This leads to leaner alcohol wine and some slight reduction but almost pithy tannin and slurpee acidity.

The wines are more savoury than what is usually seen from the Adelaide Hills with great structural framing around a blue/black fruited palate. The lift from the hallmark whole bunch kiss, an almost mineral fresh finish, this wine is really letting the fruit speak rather than the winemaking, with elevage in neutral Hogs Heads and all Natural fermentation and minimal sulphur added prior to bottling.

 

Shiraz from a north-facing site at 380m at Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills.

Stunning shiraz. Rich in fruit, texture and savoury detail. Dark chocolate and black cherry, plum and sweet spice, smoky oak and graphite. Twiggy spice and associated herb characters are here but they keep their head down for the most part. Is there some reduction here? Probably a little, thankfully. The length here is seriously good, as is the package as a whole. (96) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

From a relatively close-planted plot on clay, ironstone, quartzite and shale. Whole bunches fermented wild in open tops with minimal agitation. A headily aromatic shiraz with notes of lavender and green olive and an underbelly of verdant herb and mezcal, the legacy of whole bunches in the ferment. Notes of damson plum, red cherry, violet and sarsaparilla trail across a raft of peppery tannins, a bit drying due to the low-yielding year. A whiff of iodine, peat and smoked meat lingers. This will benefit from some patience. (95) NED GOODWIN MW, James Halliday

Among the vanguard of exceptional Australian shiraz. Or syrah as it is called here for the sake of differentiating this lithesome, aromatic and mid-weighted expression from the yeomen of warmer zones. Exceptional aromas of violets, crushed blueberries, white pepper, cloves, olives, saucisson and nori. The mid-palate is a sinuous concourse of measured generosity and freshness. The tannins, supple and impeccably shaped. The finish, long and energetic, without being obvious. In fact, nothing here is obvious, which is what makes for such exceptional drinking. If asked my favorite Australian syrah, this would be with the four or five gushed in the first breath. (96) NOD GOODWIN MW, jamessuckling.com

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

A scintillating nose of mace, clove, blue-fruit persuasions, lilac, pepper-dried salumi, fennel seed and kelp, akin to nori of the sort found at Tokyo's arsenal of exceptional sushi counters. On the slightly richer side of mid-weighted. Yet, the slippery skein of tannin is so immaculately placed that there is neither heat nor an ounce of sloppy, sweet fruit. Everything is compressed into a polished bone of tension and savory refinement. The acidity is saline and lathered with tapenade. More of a syrah from an external perspective. An irrefutably brilliant one. I wish I had more to cellar, given the wine's noble stature. A ringer for refined Cornas, if not an oxymoron. (97) NED GOODWIN, Jamessuckling.com

A sultry aroma of blackberry, Bing cherries and kombu seaweed. Crushed juniper, clove and allspice meet sandalwood, brown mushroom and pinecones. It’s full of forestry and undergrowth with specks of kalamata olive and hawthorn. Sweetness of spice shines through unpinning the black berried fruit and herbal nuances. Extremely compact and weighty. There is a lot of wine here for the dollar and as per usual it shows off its pedigree with class and sophistication. Tannins are suede like and acidity drives the flavours to the finish line which are way off in the distance. Drink now and will cellar for 5 years. A great wine for slow cooked beef tendon or oxtail. (95) SHANTEH WALE, Wine Pilot