Acta Non Verba Shiraz 2021
$98, 14.5% alcohol, cork, Adelaide Hills/Langhorne Creek.
There’s plenty of throttle to this full-bodied shiraz. It tastes of blackberry and saltbush, scorched plum and black licorice, the finish then introducing peppercorn, asphalt and aromatic herb notes. It’s a mighty wine, with a slip of vanilla-like flavour helping to keep everything smooth, though at all times it still manages to feel neat. 92 points.
Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.
Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.
