Accordingly Campbell Mattinson's review, Eperosa Magnolia 1896 Shiraz 2022 is a outstanding wine.

I haven't loved everything that I've seen come out of Eperosa over the past few years but when Eperosa is good, Eperosa is outstanding. I count Eperosa as one of the very best producers in the Barossa Valley, and indeed as one of Australia’s best wine producers. A prime example of why I rate Eperosa so highly is its latest Eperosa Magnolia 1896 Shiraz 2022 ($80). This wine is ripe, generous and exceptionally long, but what really sets it apart is its ingrained finesse, the long, silty run of its tannin, the vastness of the fragrant herb notes littered along its palate, and the way flavour is so thoroughly infused through the bursting spiral of the finish. There’s a real soar to this Barossa Valley Shiraz. It’s not a heavy wine but it’s powerful, purposeful and incredibly persistent. This is the vanguard of the modern Barossa Valley in peak form. 96/100.

The 1896 in the name of the wine refers to the age of the (Magnolia) vineyard, or at least to the vines on which this wine was grown. The Magnolia vineyard is at Vine Vale in the Barossa Valley. The Eperosa wines are made by Brett Grocke, a 6th generational Barossan. The Eperosa wines are both the real deal, and at the forefront of modern Australian wine.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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