Agricola Vintners Flaxman Valley Shiraz 2024

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Agricola Vintners Flaxman Valley Shiraz 2024 on a white background.

Agricola Vintners Flaxman Valley Shiraz 2024
$87, 13.3% alcohol, cork, Eden Valley.

Flavour is in fashion here and yet freshness, and the laciness of its tannin, is this wine’s ultimate calling card. This wine has both quality and drink-me written all over it. It’s both red berried and blue berried, bell-peppery, flashed with herbs, earthen, smoky and spicy, and yet for all this nothing feels overt; everything feels harmonious, neat and welcoming. The real icing though is the finish, and the inlay of tannin, both of which fan elaborately out, ushering spice, red dirt, mineral, darker berry and woodsmoke characters. This wine is something, and then something more. 96 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of the highly respected The Winefront site.

Mattinson has been an independent wine critic and photo-journalist since 1987. 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 prized Best Australian Sports Writing Award.

Mattinson, who is 100% independent, puts a score out of 100 on every wine that he reviews. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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