Murdoch Hill Orion Oakbank Syrah 2022

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Murdoch Hill Orion Oakbank Syrah 2022.

Murdoch Hill Orion Oakbank Syrah 2022
$91, 13% alcohol, screwcap, Adelaide Hills

When I sat down to a tasting of the best-of-the-best Australian shiraz-based wines of 2023/24, this was my favourite wine in the line-up. It was therefore my shiraz of the year for 2024, unofficially. It’s a wine of both depth and delicacy, and tautness, with wild slings of mezcal, black pepper and bell pepper characters tossed through pure, beautiful, exquisitely-well-ripened red and black berried fruit. It’s a charismatic wine, it’s a structured wine, it’s fruited and it’s classic in its savoury styling. But it’s also a wine with that something, indefinable, more. 97 points.

Campbell Mattinson

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.

More about Campbell Mattinson

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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