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 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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