2024 Standish The Standish Shiraz

Founded in 1999 by sixth-generation Barossa vigneron Dan Standish, The Standish Wine Company produces a highly allocated portfolio of single-vineyard Shiraz expressions from dry-grown, ancient vines. The 2024 vintage was heavily shaped by early-season frosts and a prolonged dry growing period that compressed the ripening timeline and sharply reduced yields. To maintain site-specific transparency across these conditions, every wine in the collection was subjected to an identical élevage of 542 days and nights maturing on the active lees, allowing variations in topography, soil composition, and microclimate alone to dictate the structural differences between each cuvée.

Sourced from the iron-rich soils of the Laycock Family Vineyard in Greenock, The Standish Shiraz serves as the structural baseline of the lineup. The 2024 vintage saw whole-bunch inclusion during fermentation increased to 50% to construct a more deliberate, firm architectural frame from this warm western Barossa microclimate.

Other Reviews...
The 2024 The Standish Shiraz is typically powerful, savory, closed and spiced here. The nose leads with sweet paprika dolce, brick dust, rose petal, black cherry and licorice. Like all the 2024 Shirazes tasted today, the palate here is silky and structural. In fact, tasting these wines side by side, The Relic is more tannic, but this is firmer, in its way. This is ever the wine in the lineup that shows a clear sense of place. It tastes like the power and the shape that the Barossa effortlessly grows from the ground up. It is impressive and impactful. 14.9% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. Drink 2026-2039.
98 Points
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

A stunning release for The Standish; possibly the best yet. The shiraz is impenetrable and vital in the glass. Aromas layer like light in a landscape painting: rich and wonderfully pure satsuma plum, blueberry and blackberry fruits flecked with raspberry-pip high tones and deeply etched with exotic spice, dried citrus rind, licorice, peppercorn, pressed meadow flowers and roast meats, with an ever-present yet liminal ferrous glance that oversees the fruit. On the palate, these flavours build with a captivating purity and focus, speaking clearly of their western Barossa roots, before releasing with resonance and great sustain, like a slowly drawn bow across a cello string. A beautiful release for this wine: fruit, depth, fine ferrous tannins, velocity and a clear sense of place, with solid cellaring potential. Superb. Drink by 2046.
98+ Points
Dave Brookes - James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion