Cape Barren Rare Bird Shiraz 2021
AU$150, 14.5% alcohol, DIAM cork, McLaren Vale.
The fruit from 35-year-old vines spent 35 days on skins before going into a combination of French and American oak for 24 months.
Five years on from vintage and this has softened but importantly it has lost none of its power. It now presents as brute force with all-smooth edges. It tastes of concentrated raspberry, cedar-sawdust, saltbush, saturated plums and round after round of oak spice and sweet earth. There’s a subtle Iced Vo Vo note to the nose and a tiny bit of mint too – in among the general flood of flavour. Tannin has both a finesse and a rustic firmness here but it never steals the show or overrides the momentum. This is a big wine, done well.
94 points – Campbell Mattinson.
