Franca’s Vineyard Shiraz 2025
AU$32, 14% alcohol, screwcap, South Australia.
There’s substance to this shiraz but there’s also a prettiness. It tastes of ripe plums, sweet spices, chocolate, leather and lavender, the latter adding both genuine floral perfume and an impression of lift to the palate as well. This is a satisfying wine, sturdy even, but it’s also exceptionally easy to like; it’s welcoming.
91 points – Campbell Mattinson.
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.
Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.
