Halo Range The Whole Bunch 'Syrah' 2022
Hand selected from our best Shiraz fruit, the Whole Bunch is foot stomped and aged in seasoned Frenk oak, allowing initial carbonic maceration to give intense aromatics and flavours, framed by sappy grainy tannins, a poised and graceful wine of many layers and immense presence. 750ml
WILD BLACKBERRIES • FRESH VIOLETS • PORCELAIN
Accolades
93 points, Halliday Wine Companion
Produced in only used French oak barrels and made with selected, best parcels of shiraz (syrah) from the estate vineyard. This is a lighter weight and refined expression of shiraz, true to its syrah naming in fragrant perfume, silky texture, mineral-laced tannins and dashes of stemmy herbal lift and peppery spice. Gentle, red berry fruitiness is also a motif, with wet slate and game meat savouriness rolled in. It feels layered in sheets, with puckering tannin lending dryness and then a coffee ground and malt-like finish. There's decent structure here, too, with dry fruit and spice hanging off those tannin bones. An intriguing syrah emerges.
93 points, The Real Review
Fresh pepper and clove aromas, red fruits too, an appealing bouquet and flavour with attendant spicy earthy savoury flavours and soft grainy tannins. Medium length finish; a delightful wine.
93 points, Wine Pilot
Here is a wine with a hands-on and feet on approach creating a captivating and delicious medium-bodied Syrah. It was foot stomped and then aged in older oak. It all contributes to a smooth and supple plush young wine with lifted ethereal flavours of ripe berries and peppery spices. Seamless and velvety smooth, an effortless wine that cruises to a long finish.
The Real Review Top 100 Winery
The Real Review’s tasting team reviews 10,000 wines over a two year period to identify the top 100 wineries in Australia
Halliday Top 5 Star Winery
Halliday defines top five-stars as 'Outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity'
Appearance: medium ruby with purple edges
Aroma: red cranberries, crushed red fruits of wild raspberries and strawberries, hints of baking spices, raspberry cane, crushed violets and lavender, red rose petals, plum skin
Palate: red currant, satsuma plum, black cherry, rhubarb, silky taut tannins, dark chocolate, Szechuan pepper, silky fine tannins with a sappy juicy finish, a savoury umami finish with a smokey line of salinity; great persistence constantly evolving to seduce
Cool, wet winter with a very high rainfall followed by a warm to hot and dry summer. The vines grew quickly, developing excellent canopies. Delayed bud burst, which affected flowering and gave lower yields. Good tannin ripeness (physiological ripeness) with deep colours in red grapes. This was a cool vintage, which allowed slow development of complex characters and beautiful acidities within the grapes.
Hand harvested early morning in mid-April, the fruit was cool when it arrived but further chilled for three days in a cool room. It was tipped as whole bunches into an open top fermenter and allowed to sit commencing carbonic maceration before being foot trodden (pigéage) over several days. Once liquid was released and the cap could be submerged, the tank was hand plunged 1-2 times daily until dryness. Some post-ferment maceration ensued for complexity and structure, building complete, silky tannins with vibrant colours for a total of 21 days on skins; the skins were then pressed gently, creating a wine of seductive fruit with a mouthcoating fine structure, taut and poised and undeniably Syrah.
Aged in 100% French oak (33% new) in 225L barriques and 300L hogsheads for 14 months on fine lees. The addition of longer lighter toast oak helped to frame the fruit and accentuate the silken grape tannins. Blending occurred with minimal fining and filtration. Bottled in August 2023, released March 2024.