Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz 2021
MULBERRY • BAKING SPICES • POWER WITH PRECISION
Our flagship Shiraz is sourced from the highest and most central point of the vineyard, where the terroir results in a wine of great balance and plushness, framing bright fruit in velvety fine tannins and muscular power. 750ml.
Accolades
97 points, James Halliday, Weekend Australian Magazine
Superb colour; hand-picked fruit from highest and most central point of the vineyard, yet has the lowest alcohol of the three shirazes. This is a magnificent shiraz, with seemingly endless layers of blackberries, plums fresh and stewed, and rounded, plush tannins.
95 points, Wine Pilot
Ripe and generous with opulent rich fruit. It certainly is a step up from the very good Single Vineyard Shiraz loaded with ripe juicy plummy fruit underpinned by a chalky tannin precision. The sweet fruit is given a little boost with the sprinkle of spices and dried herbs, while the French oak management is right on the money. The smooth and seamless palate is a joy.
94 points, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The cool growing area of the Porongurup range is an incredibly beautiful, evocative place. At once vast and intimate, it has the capacity to show you open vistas and, at the next turn, tight vignettes of granite outcrops. The Duke's Magpie Hill vineyard is planted on a gentle slope set against a backdrop of one such outcrop. The wines from this vineyard have a pristine quality to them, and this 2021 Magpie Hill Reserve Shiraz is a prime example of what the vineyard is capable of. It offers notes of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, raspberry, squid ink, nutmeg, white pepper and blood plum. It has all of the beauty of the previous vintages, but it feels like the elongation through the finish, which I so admire in this wine, is missing. It is lovely, pretty and pure.
93 points, The Real Review
Deep purple-red colour with a fresh, bright bouquet of spices, dark-plum, coconut and chocolate, the palate medium-full weighted with plenty of soft fluffy tannins and richness teamed with elegance. Oak is very much in the background. A typical Great Southern shiraz.
Halliday Top 5 Star Winery
Halliday defines top five-stars as "Outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity"
Appearance: deep dark crimson, black cherry edges
Aroma: dark forest berries of mulberry and blackberry, blood plum, hints of soy and hoisin, roasted cardamom, pink and black peppercorns, cedar smoke, salted licorice, dried violets, dark chocolate
Palate: bright rich forest berry fruits of mulberry and blackberry; salted plum; dark salty chocolate wrapped in refined complete yet elegant tannins; good fresh acid core, salted licorice, smoked charcuterie, great persistence and mouthcoating, plush yet focused
Deep winter rains were a welcome relief after two drought seasons giving way to an earlier bud burst with a slow steady growth of canopy, producing a wall of leaves to ripen a balanced crop. Rains in mid-February and early March necessitated canopy work to give good airflow and light penetration easing disease risk. Warm conditions with warm breezes concentrated the red fruit giving full physiological ripeness of tannin and colour but still with the trademark thread of minerality that gives longevity and freshness to all the wines from the estate.
Selectively harvested early morning in early April, the fruit was cool when it arrived at the winery. It was destemmed into a closed top fermenter and allowed to cold soak naturally before the ferment was allowed to proceed, followed by gentle pumping over daily from 1-3 times. Some post-ferment maceration ensued for complexity and structure, building complete tannins with intense colours for a total of 17 days on skins; the skins were then pressed gently, creating a powerful muscular, yet refined wine.
Aged in 100% French oak (36% new, balance from 17, 18, 19) of 300L hogsheads, for 14 months on fine lees. The larger format vessel allowed better integration and retention of more freshness. Blending occurred with no fining and minimal filtration. Bottled in August 2022, released March 2023.
- Vintage 2021
- Alcohol 14.2%
- Varietal Shiraz
- Bottling date August 2022
- Region Great Southern, Western Australia
- Sub-region Porongurup
- Residual sugar <2 g/l
- pH 3.63
- Acidity 8.4 g/l