St Hallet Old Block Shiraz

Wine information: This great Barossa winery goes from strength to strength. Toby Barlow, fresh from his stunning successes at Mitchelton in Victoria, has taken over where Matt Gant left off, and ensures that St Hallett remains one of the most forward looking wineries in Australia. It isn't just Shiraz that rocks their world, and the Poacher's Blend white (the first vintage was made from grapes 'stolen' in lieu of an unpaid bill!) is as racy and fresh as anything in Australia. St Hallett was established in the Barossa Valley in 1944, but the first vintage of Old Block Shiraz was the 1982. However, it was with the 1985 wine, which proved to be an important watershed year for the winery, that the current logo made its entry onto the world stage. The St Hallett labels have remained unchanged ever since. With the “Old Block”, St Hallett chiefly is aiming to produce a consistent style of wine, which reflects the grape variety and its origin. However, this is done with a focused ‘hands-off’ style of winemaking. Much blending and assembling is done before the final product is released. The right cooperage is very important. For instance, pre-2000’s American oak was used, whereas nowadays it is all French oak. The wine normally spends between eight to twenty months in barrel. They are looking for a consistent, multi-layered wine with a silky texture and no raw edges. An acknowledged icon of the Barossa.

Tasting Notes: St Hallet Old Block Shiraz is an elegant and seamless Shiraz widely recognised as world class. Powerful lifted aromas of dark chocolate and mocha are intertwined with a soft, underlying dark berry fragance. The palate shows a restrained elegance and persistence with textured, seamless tannins.

Reviews: “Red-purple; a fragrant bouquet leads into a particularly well balanced medium-bodied palate with lush, but not jammy, blackberry and raspberry fruit, ripe tannins and balanced oak. A welcome return to top form. Screwcap. Drink 2021." James Halliday, winecompanion.com.au, 95pts.

"Another sublime vintage of Old Block again propels this label ahead of the pack. It has all the opulence of black cherry and plum fruit that you might expect from top shelf Barossa Shiraz but, crucially, it is built with great refinement and texture.‘Freshness’,‘purity’ and ‘minerality’ are the buzzwords here, thanks to a significant contribution from cooler vineyards in Eden Valley and Moculta. Sourced from vines a minimum of 80 years old and matured in French oak, the focus remains firmly on the line and definition of its fruit and its finely textured tannin structure. While this is already a wine of remarkably seamless balance, it will be deceptively long-lived, improving for a decade and likely holding for two or more." Tyson Stelzer,Wine 100, 96pts.

 
     

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