Francesca Grillo Collina Calcera Syrah 2024

Written By Campbell Mattinson

Francesca Grillo Collina Calcera Syrah 2024
$38, 13.8% alcohol, cork, Eden Valley.

There’s more than one way to serve Barossa Valley shiraz, and this super-juicy example from Torzi Matthews – under the name Francesca Grillo Collina Calcera Syrah 2024 – is a particularly enjoyable way.

This is just such an interesting wine. It’s both flavoursome and sweet-fruited but frisky and herbal. Food here we come. Olives green and black, blueberries, raspberries, red licorice and citrus peel. Aromatically it’s really up and about; flavour-wise it’s both refreshing and fruit-filled. This wine – which is grown on vines planted way back in 1932 – is a bit different and a lot good. 94 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 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.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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