2016 Mystery Barossa Valley Shiraz Deal No. 6183

97 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Winepilot

I had one question for Peter Lehmann Senior Winemaker Tim Dolan about this wine – can you make a better Stonewell than the 2016 vintage? Tim said no, and I agreed – this is a monumental release of this Barossa icon. Made with fruit sourced from Moppa, Stonewell and Ebenezer, including some elevated vineyards, and from an excellent vintage, this is a beautifully pitched Barossan with crystal clear long aging potential. Deeply coloured and currently quite closed and compact, it slowly unpacks in the glass. Blackberry and blueberry at first before more savoury elements emerge – liquorice and fresh tar well matched by new large French oak. The palate is then dry and muscular but well composed with a freight train of dark and rocky fruits supported by a firm structure. Great winemaking, vintage and fruit quality have come together beautifully in this wine which will age well.

96 POINTS

Sarah Ahmed - Decanter

A dry year, with moderate temperatures during harvest and useful sprinkles of rain produced a standout vintage, with fresh, taut red and black fruits, a ferrous mineral undertow, tea leaf tannins and a lick of mocha oak. Long with great line and length, thanks to the firm, beautifully layered backbone of tannins and sappy, persistent acidity.

95 POINTS

James Halliday - Halliday Wine Companion

Selectiv' and traditional harvesters, crushed and destemmed, fermented for 14 days on skins, 14 months in French oak (50% new). A serious shiraz, with a long life ahead.

94 POINTS

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

Deep red colour with a tint of purple, and a bouquet that's redolent of ironstone, earth, graphite and minerals. It's very full-bodied, rich and savoury with stern tannins and a drying astringency that lingers long in tandem with the flavour. A powerful, emphatic shiraz—a wine that demands serious cellaring.

94 POINTS

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

A very big, muscular shiraz, about as powerful and full-bodied as Barossa shiraz can be. Graphite, ironstone characters, massive concentration and drive. This will be very long-lived.

93 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

A while between Stonewells, but here ya go. Feels like the packaging has changed or been tweaked a few times over the years, this more recent iteration (last few years, though the capsule has altered) feels a bit more contemporary but not quite as classy as the ye olden days, or so I says. War and Peace continues on the back label, though. Casella at the helm of course. Thick set, lavish and potent red, deeply flavoured with cedar, dark chocolate powder, leather, soot and char. Scents and flavours start and finish with wood and boozey fruit influence, but you can see a mesh with the inky, rich, ripe plum and black currant fruit going on. Very powerful, sheathed in fine, building pucker of gummy tannins spiked with clove and woody spice flavours. Wood trumps all, which pulls the wine back a bit. It’s a wine that needs cellar time to do its best, a decade or so to mellow before you start.