HEAD Wines The Brunette Shiraz 2023 13.5% 750ml

HEAD Wines The Brunette Shiraz 2023 13.5% 750ml

TASTING NOTES

APPEARANCE

Dark purple.

PALATE

Savoury fruits, dried herbs and fine, structured tannins.

REGION NOTES

Head Wines now works with a diverse range of up to 20 different Shiraz vineyards in the Barossa and Eden Valleys. To be considered part of ‘The Brunette’ a vineyard must perform amongst the few top vineyards each year and represent the ‘dark-side’ of Shiraz in the Barossa. In the vineyard we give every opportunity for the fruit to provide us with the tannins and concentration to make a structured and long-lived traditional Barossa Shiraz. In the 2023 vintage, The Brunette comes from the ‘Fechner’ vineyard planted circa 1908 near Moculta in the Eden Valley GI at 320m altitude. This is potentially the warmest vineyard site in the Eden Valley and the soils are deep red clays, mixed with buckshot/ironstone and some scattered quartz.

VINIFICATION

1t open top stainless steel, indigenous yeast, 10% whole-bunch, two-week ferment, pump-overs.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

Country: Australia

Region: Barossa Valley

Vintage: 2023

Variety: Shiraz & Shiraz Blends

alcohol volume: 13.5

closure: Screwcap

volume: 750

weight: 1.3333kg

wine style: Red (Full Bodied)

Reviews:

Stuart Knox, The Real Review - 97 Pts

Deep and full ruby colour with an intriguing nose that sings of blackberry, wakame, and crushed violet petals. The palate is full and dense, ripe black and blue berries are the baseline but it’s the iodine/seaweed savoury element that really ramps up the character here. It's textural and powerful, dark and brooding with a visceral sensation to its character. Wonderful length, backed by iron-fist-in-velvet-glove style tannins. This is a wine that demands all your attention.

Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot - 96 Pts

The colour is garnet/magenta, fading to red on the rim. The nose offers notes of leather, cassis, dark cherries, blackcurrants, ripe raspberries and a hint of bacon fat. There are delicatessen meats and herbs, with a touch of warm earth. A seamless wine which lifts on the palate, it offers laser-like focus, silky tannins and great length. Intensity throughout, but a wine which has muscle and yet exhibits such immaculate balance. A stunning Barossa Shiraz.

Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 Pts

Shiraz sourced from the Fechner 1908 plantings in Moculta at 320m in the Eden Valley; 10% whole bunch, 15 months' maturation in French oak, 33% new. Ripe, juicy plum and dark cherry fruit tones with hints of brown spice, mountain herbs, polished leather, dried meats, dark chocolate and earth, with some lovely purple floral top notes. The wood spice from the maturation sinks back into that plush fruit nicely, with soft, pumice-stone tannins and a bright mineral line as it slowly retreats. Lovely drinking.

David Sly, Decanter - 95 Pts

With a sturdy black-fruited core, this is a more formidable monument than its Head Wines stablemates. Sourced from the Fechner vineyard, planted in 1908 at Moculta in the northern Barossa, its vines on deep red clay mixed with ironstone and quartz produce intense berries that provide a dark purple wine with particularly broad shoulders, yet a slim waist. Its savoury fruits are piqued with dried herbs, while the presence of fine, structured tannins and maturation over 15 months in 33% new French oak supports the presentation of such powerful, concentrated fruit.