97 Points – Patrick Eckel, Wine Reviewer
96 Points – Steve Leszczynski, QWine Review
96 Points – Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion
2020 ARILA GARDENS
QUARTZ AND IRONSTONE
SHIRAZ
$90.00
This parcel of Shiraz was a selection of vines showcasing the absolute best of Shiraz from our Arila Gardens single vineyard site. The fruit was selected for its enticing dark chocolate, black fruits, and its rich opulent palate. To complement this, a parcel from the Sand Gardens heightened the aromatics, lengthened and tightened the palate to create a truly balanced and complete wine.
Our Garden Selection Shiraz is a culmination of decades of experience, working in the Barossa Valley focussing on top end, age worthy wines. The intent with this wine is to showcase our vineyard in the Moppa sub-region of the Barossa Valley. The Moppa region is highly acclaimed and often blended in to the most sought after wines In the Barossa Valley, but rarely seen as a single vineyard offering. Arila Gardens embodies the power and complexity the region has built a reputation for but with an elegance and finesse to the structure that we love to drink.
Out of stock
Tasting Note
Grape Variety: Shiraz
Vineyard: Quartz & Ironstone Gardens from the Arila Gardens single vineyard, Moppa, Barossa Valley.
Colour: Deep magenta purple.
Nose: Highly aromatic and complex, nose of bright blackberry pastille, mulberry, and blood plum fruits with layers of aniseed, violet floral nuances, and cocoa.
Palate: Dense core of slick black fruits glide across the palate. This wine has depth and flavour length whilst still retaining a weightless quality. Layers of fruit uncoil to show more complex black tar, coffee grinds and cashew nut butter notes. Tannins are fine and powdery supporting a long seamless palate with building flavour length, drive and grace.
Cellaring potential: 10-15+ years.
Vintage Conditions
The 2020 growing season was a challenging one viticulturally. Below average rainfall in winter and spring of 2019, combined with wind at flowering and a hot dry December and early January severely impacted yields. Fewer bunches than typical combined with small bunch and berry size made for limited quantities of intensely flavoured fruit. Rain on the 1 of February was a savour to vines, allowing fruit to gradually ripen with good flavour, colour, and tannin development, in sync with sugar accumulation. Fruit for this Shiraz was handpicked on the 27 of February for Quartz Garden and on the 17 of March for the Ironstone Garden.
Winemaking
- Hand-picked – Quartz Garden, 27 February & Ironstone Garden 17 March 2020
- Cold soak 24 hours at 12 °C
- Splattering of whole bunch at base of fermenter
- Remainder whole berry
- Fermentation in small open top fermenters for 9-10 days with gentle pump overs and occasional hand plunging
- Gentle pressing via bag press
- Maturation – 14 months in 35% new French oak, remainder seasoned French oak
- Racked from barrel and filtered prior to bottling
- Wine analysis
pH – 3.61
Acidity – 6.64 g/L
Alcohol – 14.5 %
Residual Sugar – Dry: 1.52 g/L
Reviews
My immediate thought with this Shiraz was that if these guys are making wines this good from 2020, I can’t wait to see their 2021s. Again from the Moppa subregion, the vines planted back in 1940, this is a joy.
Opaque/black/purple in colour (if that is a colour), this is plush and layered. Richly flavoured, complex and gorgeously textured. This could only be first class Barossa Shiraz. Notes of cassis, soy, licorice, black fruits and chocolate. The palate may be dense but it dances. There is balance and length here, serious length. Wonderful stuff. If you can keep your hands off it, the wine has twenty years ahead of it. When I went back to look at past thoughts on previous vintages, I found I had given these wines exactly the same scores for their 2019s, so they are nothing if not consistent. – Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot (97 points)
Vibrant deep red with a purple hue. Lovely floral tones alongside red cherry and plum with top notes of milk chocolate and subtle spice.
The wine is medium bodied with such elegance and drive; tannins are fine and acidity gives both a moreish thread and impressive length to dark berry fruits that grow in impact across the palate. Cocoa and dry spice gives another dimension to finish. The length is significant. – Patrick Eckel, Wine Reviewer (97 Points)
All rise. What a superstar we have here! Handled with white gloves it would seem such is the precision. Sure it’s young, but oh my, embrace this with two hands and savour every drop.
There’s a purity to the fruit and a vibrant hue that captures your attention from the outset. The finesse at play is stand and applaud material as it slowly creeps through the mouth filling every crevice with ease. So soft and silky, blueberries and mulberry fruit roll out the welcome mat before dark berry fruits and dark chocolate sidle up and nestle in. The layers of interest are delicate and focused with super fine spices gliding through the mouth as they tease out the moreishness. Long and persistent, this is a sublime example of Barossa Shiraz. Bigger named labels would chase more than twice the money for the quality offered here. Embrace the opportunity to support a small business that delivers exceptional wines. Drink to ten years+.– Steve Leszczynski, QWine Review (96 Points)
Moppa-grown shiraz from 2 plots planted circa 1940 and 2011, 100% whole berries, 7 days on skins and aged in French oak (35% new) for 16 months. Intense purple red in the glass with abundant floral-flecked dark plum and black fruits, with hints of licorice, brown spices, earth, coal dust, pressed flowers and dark chocolate. Wonderful fruit density, balance and flow, with tight tannin support, bright acidity and a finish that trails off nicely with memories of cassis, kirsch and spice. – Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion (96 Points)
