Koomilya JC Block Shiraz 2021

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Koomilya JC Block Shiraz 2021.

Koomilya JC Block Shiraz 2021
$130, 14% alcohol, screwcap, McLaren Vale.

Koomilya’s JC Block and the DC Block shiraz releases are neck-and-neck in quality terms and are both superb wines. My preference of the two is the DC Block, just, though this JC Block release is mightily impressive as well. The fruit itself feels velvety, all plum and suede leather, redcurrant and roses, and again the general lack of artifice works beautifully given the svelte and certain power of the fruit. This wine though is the more elegant of the two, the more “grenache-like” in a way, with buoyant perfumes and general floral characters, firm sheets of tannin, and a distinct lightness of touch. It promises to mature gorgeously.

96 points.

Campbell Mattinson has been a journalist for 40 years, a wine critic for 25 years, is a former chief editor of Halliday Wine Companion and was the founder of The Winefront business. He’s steadfastly independent.

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Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. 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, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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Koomilya DC Block Shiraz 2021