2024 Vangurardist Syrah

Juicy red to dark fruits with a savoury back drop and elegant finish that shows plenty of pepper and spice.

Dark red core with black shaded edges and a red to dark red hue. Fragrant red plum and red liquorice aromas are intermeshed with dried herb, earth and peppered meat notes. Juicy red plum and liquorice fruits meld into a savoury back drop of dried herbs, scorched earth and peppered meats. Mid weighted it has polished yet structural tannins, ample freshness and a long, elegant finish that shows plenty of pepper and spice.
Drink over the next 5-6 years.
Alc. 13.1%

Other Reviews…..

From Ebenezer, planted to sandy clay loam with fragmented ironstone over limestone. This sits no more than medium in weight, sketched in charcoal and pencil rather than splashed with colour. There’s fruit intensity, concentration, but like other wines of the stable, spice and savouriness and structure are the guiding principles. Blackberry, dried olive, a mulberry tang to the palate, with a sultry detailing of dry spices, clove, allspice, whole pepper and the like. Faded violet, blood and rust, cured meat, dried blood orange. Layered and complex, a saline, Dutch-licorice edge to the palate. Tannins, as always, are detailed, carefully extracted, compellingly instructive, leading to the table. Drink by 2034.
96 Points
Marcus Ellis - James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion

Ebenezer. One third whole bunch. Raised in two puncheons, one new and one two years old.
Blackberry, raspberry, lots of dusty spices, terracotta, orange peel, a coffee ground earthiness, violet. It’s medium-bodied, quite firm, a juiciness and freshness to acidity, a firm grain to tannin, cherry with an earthy character, some orange peel and floral mouth-perfume, finish has a boysenberry crispness, sappiness and excellent length. Engaging wine. Different. There’s so many layers to it. Give it some time, I’d say, though there’s no shortage of interest now. Drink 2027-2038+
95+ Points
Gary Walsh – The Wine Front

The 2024 Syrah is mineral, medium-weighted and rocky, with attractive notes of rose petals, graphite, dried herbs and tapenade. This is an earth-bound wine, one that speaks of the elements rather than the fruits. It is textural, lingering and layered, and the acidity is saline.
Everything here feels just so. There are notes of blood orange, freshly grated cinnamon and licorice too. The whole bunches (one-third of the fruit) are evident here, both in texture and aroma. This is excellent. The fruit comes from a vineyard in Ebenzer, at the northernmost edge of the Barossa Valley. The soil in this vineyard (owned by the ninth generation of the McKenzie family) is well-drained sandy clay loam over a solid limestone base, with ironstone and red-brown earth. It's an exceptional wine of both delicacy and impact. 13.1% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2026-2039.
95 Points
Erin Larkin – Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate