Carlei Estate Nord Root Day Shiraz 2020

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle image of Carlei Estate Nord Root Day Shiraz 2020

Carlei Estate Nord Root Day Shiraz 2020
$59, 14.5% alcohol, screwcap, Heathcote.

This wine was grown biodynamically. and picked according to the biodynamic calendar, hence the name Root Day. I tasted it alongside its partner wine, which goes under the same name save for the fact that it was picked on a Fruit Day (review here). It’s an interesting comparison. I wasn’t sure whether I’d notice much difference, or whether I’d have a preference, but I did and I do.

I expected that the Fruit Day wine would be the more lifted and lively, but counter-intuitively it’s this Root Day version that is the more up-and-about. This wine has excellent depth but doesn’t seem brooding at all; it seems lively and ready to tuck into now. It tastes of plums, spices, red licorice and hay, and it’s these hay-like notes that are more overt here, and arguably more delicious as well. This is a crackerjack shiraz from Carlei Estate. 94 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. 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, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

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