Monty’s Leap River Hawk Shiraz 2023
$40, 12.8% alcohol, screwcap, Great Southern.
This is a complex red with earth, undergrowth, smoked meat and black pepper characters flowing through black and red cherry flavours. There’s a gentle creaminess to the texture and a good sense of both composure and harmony. It’s light- to medium-weight and appreciably dry, with a gentle meaty/gamey note lingering through the aftertaste. 90 points.
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 both The Winefront site (the home of Australia’s best wine reviews) and of Mattinson Photography.
Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer 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 national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.
Campbell Mattinson is a storyteller. He is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic, and in all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.
